The cutest Bulldog's around.

Now that is a cute kid. the girls went to the doctor today for their checkups. Everyone is good. Layla is 39" tall and 41.4 lbs. Now i know why it hurts when she stands on my chest and falls back to land on my gut after tubtime. Marley weighed in at 13.8 lbs and 23" tall. Everyone is good.

trying to see how to do this.

hello all. i am doing 2 things. figureing out how to post a youtube video and at the same time, show you a youtube video. it is a John Mayer song called Come Back to Bed. this is a song that i just found that i have had for awhile and never paid any attention to it. great song. live version. gets heavy. later. either way, just click the box and i hope it will shot you to youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gya94ScUKPc

my thoughts but John Mayer said them. weird.

so i think that everyone has seen the commercials by Lexus talking about the Mark Levingston audio system. a couple of music celebs have done the adds. something always seemed odd about the ad. i found it through Mayer's words. here is.

RUMINATIONS ON A TREADMILL

Here's some stuff I was thinking about on the treadmill today. I don't bring my iPod to the gym anymore. I can't really explain it except to say that there's something unsatisfying about it. The songs kind of drill into my ear when I'm working out and I can't concentrate on the parts of the music I want to. (I told you I couldn't really explain it.)

1.) Chris Rock came by the Comedy Cellar last night and KILLED IT. I have to say that watching Chris do an hour of brand-new material in front of 45 people on a Sunday night seems tantamount to Miles Davis slipping into a supper club and playing a few ballads with the house band. Watching someone create like that in front of you - especially at the level that Chris Rock can - is just plain badass. I won't be the guy to try and regurgitate someone's comedy to make my point. Just trust me when I say the new stuff is hilarious. The world needs a new hour from Chris Rock to set us all straight, I can tell you that.
After his set, I committed the cardinal sin around comedians, called "try and make the funny guy laugh". I did not make the funny guy laugh, and in fact, made a fool out of myself in the process. Who knew he was coming by and that I was going to have so many Jack and Dianes... (my new name for Jack and Diet...)

2.) I just saw a commercial for Lexus featuring Elvis Costello, and as I like to pay attention to my reactions when I'm being sold something, I thought this was an interesting one. Here's the order of impressions made on me.
a. Oh look, there's Elvis Costello.
b. Man, that guy looks cool. I hope I look that cool someday.
c. How old is he? He's just plain cool. And it's got nothing to do with age. I'd like my cool to have nothing to do with age.
d. Do you just decide to do that and you can? I hope so. I'm deciding right now to be that cool.
e. He's talking about Beethoven. Interesting.
f. He's in a Lexus. Cool looking car.
g. Oh, it's a Lexus ad, centered on the stereo system.
h. THAT STEREO SYSTEM SOUNDS GREAT, I BET.

Two things here interest me - number one, at no time during the commercial did I have the response of "Oh, look, Elvis Costello got paid to do a Lexus commercial. Times must be tough!" The words "sell-out", "shill", "hock" also never came to mind. Just how cool I thought Elvis Costello was and how that stereo system looks like it sounds great. And that's where number two comes in. How difficult must it be - and subsequently how impressive is it - to sell a sound to you over a TV commercial? The car looks like it smells like brand-new upholstery and that stereo looks like it sounds great. Elvis looks cool, the car looks cool, and everybody goes away happy. Maybe I'll re-think my stance on things...

okay. well i think that sums it up. had band practice last night. Brian and I and the new guitar player Vince and his friend Mike. Mike was okay. to be honest, the whole band just does not feel right. Shawn will be a hard guitar player for me to get over. he played what i wanted to hear. he played on what i liked to imagine myself playing on. it makes me glad to be a drug free person but harder to figure out what you can do for someone who has chemical issues. i don't see there being anyway to talk to him and all of a sudden be able to clean him up. i am about ready to move on but i hate to give up because it is so hard to start something. i have been listening to a lot of Jazz. Coltrane, Redman, Dizzy, Max Roach and Brandford to be exact and it is hard for me to not want to start somethign in that field but for me jazz is only enjoyable for a while. i wouldn't want to start something and then want to bail when i get tired of jazz. i would last longer with the blues. for me that seems to be what i always go back to.maybe not in the traditional sense of Buddy Guy or guys like that, but in some way or another. to me an ideal set up would be, Shawn drug free and on guitar, Bill Deshone on upright, Jeff on sax and me on kit. i would definatley be the weak link on the band with the talent of those musicians on those instruments. i would be coattail riding on that experience no doubt.

another weekend down.

Hello all, i hope you had a good weekend. Saturday morning Elizabeth and I went to Mr. Kropf's funeral which was a very nice service. i am glad that we went. they had a moment that people could go up and tell stories or memories of him and i had quite a few but decide not to. i don't think that it was anything that i will regret but i they are funny stories. one would have been told for Bronson who couldn't make it to the funeral. i know he would have gone up and told it. when Bronson first got married, the Kropf's went and gave him a $50 gift card to somewhere like Target. Brons and his wife had a dog and so with the money they bought a leash and other random things. shortly after that was bought, one Sunday morning the newly weds were getting ready for church. Brons was somewhere else in the house and heard his wife scream. he went out front. the dog had run around the porch a couple times and then fallen off the porch and hung itself so we always joked that Mr. Kropf killed his dog and marriage. i know it's a little morbid to laugh at, but if you knew Bronson, we giggle everytime we talk about that. we also would have the story about when Bob was first coming back home. he had to make some changes at the house so he needed us to come over to put there bed at an angle so your head was slightly higher than your feet. well we go over, put some blocks under the feet and the top. Mr. Kropf goes over to the foot of the bed and starts making obvious motions and looks at Dorthy and says, "yeah, i think that will still do." again, maybe some thing not best for a funeral. still funny though. Saturday evening i played at the Rythms of Grace festival with Jeff and a couple other people from Granger Community Church. it was a good outing. we only had 1 full band practice so i think that if this would have been for a large venue, we would have needed a lot more work. was it my best performace, no but considering what we did i think it was fine. i think that we were fairly boring to watch except maybe Mike the bass player. in other music news i am in the process of working on some toms that i have had for about 4 years. i got them from E. about 4 X-mas's ago and at the time intended on buying the remanding shells to do a full kit. well right after i got them, the company, Adonis, that i got them from stopped selling shells only, you had to buy the shell and all the parts together from them, so then they were just a rip off. just last week i looked and they are now officially closed. shocker. i am thinking that i will stain these shells and if i had a gig come up that i wanted to use these, i would just partner them up with my Gretsch kick. they are smaller sized shells. 8x12 and 12x15. the stains that i am looking at and loving the color is the Minwax Poly Shades Bombay Mahogany in a high gloss, but i don't want the one step stain and poly. i have been looking to see who else out there does stains to find that color. the kit posted is from the drummer Steve Ferrone. he is one of my favorite. okay. lego band time. name these bands....

don't be mad at me when you are wrong. i just find the pics.

Post 46. here goes......

hello all, it's been a little while. hope all had a good 4th vacation. Layla went to Aunt Kendra's and my aunt Paula's to play with her cousin's. she had a great time. she even rode a jet ski driven by her uncle Jason. i am shocked. last year she hated riding in the paddle boat. it probably helped not having mom or dad to cling onto. while i was home i relocated and rebuilt the swingset in the back yard. bigger and better. it is 8 feet tall now. almost a monument. i also had some practicing time on my own to drum which was really nice to have. over the weekend we had the McD's and the Lassy's over for a cookout adventure. good times. brats, dogs, beverages, and laughter (sounds like a Hallmark card) i am happy to say that i got a new cell phone. normal practice of transfering contacs and all wasn't to bad considering i think that i had 162 numbers. i transfered those last night, but just the good ones. not the vendors that i never talk to or have dropped. i would like it also to be known that i have been READING a book. it's about a drummer, Kieth Moon of the Who. not that that is an undoable thing, but i just wanted to let someone know that i can read.

We were told today that Bob Kropf, Don Kropf, our president's dad and Curt Yoder, our other owner's father-in-law died last evening. it was a long fight. Bob was good people. he helped me a lot when i first started purchasing running around getting things and if i needed help getting someone motivavted ont eh phone, he was not afraid to do it.

by the way, the Lego's are of Led Zeppelin. very cool.

a rare sighting, baby sleeping.

Here is Marley, 6 weeks tomorrow, in a rare state of slumber. this was after she finally fell asleep on my chest, waited like an hour, and slide her off to the side so i could get up (and get some cookies) she is a good kid normally. we've only grounded her a couple of times. Her sister still really likes her a LOT, however Marley still hasn't gone after any of her toy's so i'll let you know when that love changes. in the world of Bandland, here are the new developments... the blue velvet has been slowly falling off of the Pearls for some time. i posted about it, we i had practice Sunday so i put them back together for that because i didn't want to take the Gretsch's out so here is the state that they are in currently. Nothing fancy, just wood (and filler). i did put on a new set of heads, the Remo Smooth White Emporers. the jury is still out on if i like them or not. i bought them about 3 years ago and had intended them for a kit i was building (and still havn't touched) so i figured we would at least get some use out of them. they ring for days, but Remo heads use glue so they detune so much, we will keep stretching them and working on them. i'll tell you later what they are worth in a couple weeks. at this point, they won't take the place of my beloved Evans. Talking with Jeff about a gig that he is playing in with people from Granger Community Church, i find that they are having drummer issues and as it worked out, i was able to help. 8 songs, 2 practices, 1 performance and some good music. we are playing at the Rhythems of Grace festival. it isn't a huge deal by any means, but it is nice to have a purpose in your playing. We are doing a couple Jonny Lang songs so i am excited about that. On the regular band front, we auditioned a guy yesterday. i don't know if i ever heard his name. i want to say it was Bill, but i may be full of crap. He was a little older, 37 and a god size fella but very nice. he comes from a band that he is the only guitar player. very technical. i was very impressed when he played "Cult of Personality" and "Are You Gonna Go My Way" overall he would have fit in more with the Blank Slate genre than anything. very good for that. Marshall 100 watt combo (just like Jeff's 65 watt) GNX2 board (just like jeff's GNX3) and a Washburn guitar. i hate Washburn electrics. something about the them, so stereotypical about them, that i don't like. there are a couple guys out there that we are still going to listen to but we'll see how it goes. i really wish Shawn would have worked out. i liked him, his style and his direction that he wanted to go. as far as responsbility, i don't know if he knows what that is. it has been 3 weeks and we havn't been able to get ahold of him to tell him that he is being replaced, but after that long, i would think that he knows. gotta run. have a good holiday