ok, so what's with the cold weather all of a sudden. only in wisconsin. it was 83 degrees yesterday - i mean pretty hot, right? well, today it's barely 50 degrees with a low of 35 tonight. WTF? actually, it's been really really nice for the last week. this weekend, we got some great weather. what a crazy weekend - - :)

on friday night, we went to see jimmy d (a highschool friend) and his band perform. they performed at a party on water street. nick and i were heading into the building - and the elevator opens with tons of people coming down. and who do we see - yep, mark from american movie. he is OF COURSE, drunk and says - "dude - it's a great party up there" - he walks out, we walk in, elevators close. the end of the story! it all went so fast - i was thinking to myself as the elevator went up towards the party - but someone else in the elevator goes, "yeah, so that was totally mark from american movie" - it was crazy.

apparently, it's not strange to spot mark in the mke area - he's everywhere. but, it was still kinda cool.

so we went to the party, it was put on by a graphic design company and was displaying an art show simultaneously. really cool - plus free beer and wine! double yay! we met some odd characters on the balcony, everyone was so very nice. i guess i just wasn't expecting that. i don't know what i was expecting, maybe a little more pretention - but it was very cool. very madison-esque. everyone was just there to have a good time. this is exactly what i missed when i was in mpls. i missed the madison/mke attitude. basically the rock attitude. where everyone just leaves everyone alone (not as much pettiness) and just rock out together.

jim's band was awesome! they are a cover band - and jim's voice is just amazing - awesome. we used to perform together in a little cover band back in college, he's a great singer/guitarist. i still have a video of one of our performances. man, i am never letting anyone see me doing that, i can guarantee it! :)

back to friday night, i could definitely think of more songs that i would like to hear from the band's repetoire. their style is very indie - and not the covers that i like the most - in fact, i didn't know a lot of the songs they played. but, they perform them well. jello shots were being continuously passed around the room. Good times!

Saturday was just the kind of rockstar day that you haven't had since college. Seriously.
the kind of day that you start drinking at 1030am, and don't quit until about 12 hours later - and yet, somehow you are never wasted - because you are just continuously buzzed ALL DAY! good fun. a bunch of us had a bus lined up to go to the brewer game. we showed up at nate's house (he lives about 15 mins from the stadium) and had a few beers before we got on the bus. and of course, a few on the bus as well - when we got there we set up camp by the bus. annie, dan, lina and mark ended up meeting us at the game. by this time both nick and i were pretty buzzed already. there were about 25 of us in total and it was just such a blast. andy had brought a baseball bat and wiffleball - we played with that quite a bit. After grilling out, we headed into the game in the 4th inning. In the 5th, we headed to the TGIFridays in the stadium and of course, had some more blue moon!! :) by the time the game was over, i realized that i didn't really watch any of it at all! the thing is, i think baseball is one of the most boring sports in the world to watch. i would so rather watch football any day! if i really had to pick some sports to sit around and watch all day - it would for sure be tennis and soccer. those two sports are interesting and fun to watch. anyways - baseball ranks with boxing and horseshoes as far as i'm concerned.

anyways, the brewers lost (or so i was told after the game) - i forgot to pay attention - and we headed back to the bus to have more food and drinks. after the coolers were dry, we headed back to nate's to grill out more and of course, get some more beer. what a crazy crazy day. and yet, i woke up on sunday feeling absolutely great. odd. i think it helps when you drink consistently all day instead of binge drinking within one hour. we drank a whole bunch of water and i went to bed around 11pm - and slept until 11am. a good 12 hours a day keeps the hangover away! :)

anyways, that was super duper fun. this week has been hard for me to get into work so far. i am designing a brochure for grandcare, and there's so much i have to always wait on. i have to get pics from someone else, and of course they're out of town until thursday..blah blah. can't wait until this finally gets moving in fast gear...

friday i leave for vegas baby VEGAS! saturday is my bday - so we'll probably go to some crazy show. actually, i'd just like to go to the casinos and play some blackjack. it's going to be a weekend with just dan, brie and me - laying in the sun, drinking margaritas by the pool. according to the weather forecast here, i won't be missing much sun. always good to hear!

just a side note - i am so obsessively addicted to alias right now. i'm not kidding - if you have not seen them, you must go out immediately and rent the first 3 seasons. so so addicting. and michael vartan - YUM! we just finished season 2, not to worry - season 3 on the way through netflix right now - - i'll keep you all posted..

well, sh*t, I guess i better get working on something. hope you're having a more productive week than i am so far!! :)
L

np: Nirvana - Nevermind

Welliwellwell. Just procrastinating this morning before getting to work. I've popped my "music I listened to in high school" mix into the disc changer. Nirvana, Queensryche, Rush, and Nine Inch Nails... Yum. Not stuff I can listen to all the time -- a few too many wierd memories pop up. But good for bathing in the warmth and innocence that was the nineties.

Yeah. So, this hit the New Mexico news this weekend:



The Mitchell Fire. No, not a joke. No, not a coincidence. My family has its very own fire named after it. That's being talked about in such close news markets as India.

The story goes like this. My dad's yahoo city slicker falconry buddies were down working on a cage on his land. They were grinding metal near some tall grass, not paying attention, and the rest is history. My family name goes down in infamy with 1200 or so acres of riverbottom burned. Well, on the plus side, no one got hurt and nobody's house got torched. Athough at one point, my mom was throwing the family pictures and her cats in the car, getting ready to hit the road as the fire roared toward their house... Fun fun.

Well, although I haven't been putting out fires lately (or starting them for that matter), I've been very busy with about a zillion little projects, all of which are slowly creeping toward completion. That and I finally picked up Zelda for GameCube... So I've been a little short on working on new material lately, but progress is being made. We have five new tracks in the "developed" stage -- that is their structure is layed out and Laura has a scratch vocal track over the top. I'd say at least another five are in varying stages of being written, some in better shape than others.

While working on one of the tracks this weekend, I dialed up a guitar tone that is absolutely insane. I was looking for that old-timey distortion, kind of the bad scary movie variety, thin and nasal. What I came up with was even a step more obnoxious -- seriously, Trent Reznor would be proud. And I'm finding I'm using it at low volumes in a few too many tracks now... I'm listening to every track saying "You know what that could use? That true grit guitar sound!" Eeek. We might be becoming a rock band.... :P

Some day you'll find your soulmate, Napolean. Peaceout.

Man, things have been crazy crazy crazy lately. I have been working a lot and involved in far too much! I hate when that happens. It sounds like a good idea at the time to get involved in these activities and then all of a sudden, all of them come up at once. Oops. Oh well - it IS really and I do enjoy everything that I am doing.

GrandCare Systems is taking up most of my time right now. God, Start-ups are crazy lots of work. Not that I didn't think it would be like that, but I just never realized how complicated it is and how important organization is. That is pretty much my job right now. Although my official title is Sales/Marketing Manager, I have been in charge of all of the "to do" lists, priorities and what order things need to get done in. I also am in charge of making sure our weekly meetings happen, writing down minutes and agendas...ack. It makes my head swim to talk about it when I'm tired!!

What has been taking me perhaps the most time is coming up with a 2 minute elevator spiel on exactly what GrandCare Systems. It's a problem. Whenever people ask me what it is, they don't want a 15 minute description - they want a short 2 minute, straight to the point idea of what the product is. I think I finally came up with something - - tell me what you think:

A computerized monitoring and enhanced communication device for caregivers to monitor and keep in touch with their elderly loved ones. The main idea is to give the caregiver peace of mind while simultaneously alleviating loneliness for the loved one. GrandCare Systems uses motion & sound detection to monitor activities of daily living and provides GrandCare TV, a private station displayed on the senior’s television that the caregiver can constantly update on-line and send personal messages, display weather, post reminders, put up picture slideshows and video clips...

I don't know - - is it still too complicated. Damn..I don't know.

Anyways - besides that, Nick and I have been busy bees with the Signal Fire Films Movie Soundtrack. Nick is doing all of the music and audio for "Six Bullets", and indie film written and directed by a guy named Graham Killeen - super talented actor/director. I actually went to high school with this guy and he came to us about 3 years ago with this idea. It's still in the works, and his movie is amazing! I have gotten to see some clips so far, and it's unbelievable - Six Bullets is scheduled to bepremiered summer/fall of 2006. In the meantime, somehow I volunteered to do PR for Six Bullets. It's going to be a lot of hard work, but I believe in Graham - I just don't know if I'm really going to have enough time!! ack!

I also am doing PR for the UW-Alumni club here in West Bend, a fun group of people who just meet at the Binkery - plan events, discuss fundraisers for University of Wisconsin-Madison and then do what we all do best! Drink! It's fun - and we have met tons of cool people there.

I am still doing some side contract work for serigraph - more market research, brings in some extra cash, which is always nice. I have not been doing much booking for other bands as of late, as I am trying to get everything in order before I decide whether or not I have the time to do that in addition. Booking for endless blue is enough in itself!! :)

Exciting that we will be back in Minneapolis twice in the next 3 months! Sometime in May, we will be performing at the Loring Pasta Bar and then Pride in June!! A show at the Ultra Lounge in Rochester will probably occur the night before Pride too - - who knows what else will come up. Summer always seems to bring more unexpected gigs than we ever plan for.

If you'd like us to come play in your city, let us know and we'll see what we can do. We are touring in September on the way to Salt Lake City and back, so let me know (especially if your city is anywhere near on the way).

We've been selling a lot of CDs lately (especially in germany - we love the germans!!) Let us know if you have any reviews both good and bad of the current self-titled album, we love to hear from you. Send all reviews
You get to hear what's up with me all the time, but I don't always know what's up with you. Drop me an email anytime..

Well, I guess I should probably get back to work soon here. I'll get on Nick's butt to write a damn entry - - it's like he has a job or something..whatever.