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Free Preview of the new Booze Monkey album online!

It's been a long time since I've posted. Things have been busy and generally crappy for a long time now. Ultimately I ran out of things to post that weren't just negative and annoying to read (and write). Thus the long silence.

On a brighter note I've been working on the new Booze Monkey record. It has been a long time coming, but it is finally on the way.

We've selected a release date for the album:
Tuesday 8 April 2008
We are planning album release parties for Saturday 5 April 2008 and/or Saturday 12 April 2008. We'll be performing live at TBD venue(s) for those parties with a full band. I've already obtained commitments from some amazing musicians and I'm courting some others of equally outstanding skills. Yay!

For those who are familiar with Booze Monkey's live shows and the previous three albums (four if you count the RLR! bootleg) this album is a bit of a departure. Basically this album represents all of my musical detours over the years thrown into a blender (with a healthy bit of Booze) and set to puree.

But feel free to see/hear for yourself!

As of early this morning a FREE EIGHT-SONG PREVIEW OF THE NEW BOOZE MONKEY ALBUM, 4TH ST. IS AVAILABLE ONLINE!

That's right! Eight of a planned ten songs are available for free download at the 4th St. subsite at SanityCheck.net The site also includes lyrics, quasi-liner-notes, and more information than most people will ever want.

If'n you're interested, simply visit SanityCheck.net and navigate your way to the 4th St. subsite.

I hope you find ya dig it.

I most certainly

... could not win gold in women's skiier-x at winter X-Games; no matter how hard I tried.

Sad but true...

I knew the honeymoon was over when I caught myself watching a late night showing of Beastmaster II over Star Wars Episode I.

Feastin'

The past quarter, or so, has been exceedingly lousy. Shit, the past few years have boasted a steady decline in which each weeks has, more or less, been worse than the week that preceded it. As a result I haven't posted much of late, I'm a bitter, angry and generally miserable person, but I derive no joy from making others unhappy (if I did then I'd likely be better off) so I see no point in posting nothing but a bunch of bitching and complaining. I don't mind pointing out something shitty, but I don't enjoy just plain ol' bitchin'. Thus the silent blog. I've been unable to think of anything positive (or at least funny) to post.

That said - it's Thanksgiving again!

As I've said since I can remember, I'm not thankful for shit. The vast majority of my problems come from having been born wrong, that is having nothing of consequence in common with those who make my decisions for me. So I'm not going to sift through the life for which I am the placeholder looking for each little nugget that doesn't suck and then pretend to be "thankful" for them. I have nothing that I haven't earned entirely on my own and nothing that isn't out-weighed by the negative aspects of my existence which are almost always a direct result of an outside force. So, fuck "thankful".

But...

Tomorrow is feast day!

Christina makes a massive traditional Thanksgiving dinner and we feast. It is usually a pleasant day with great food and if I drink enough (and I usually do) I can shut down my brain enough to stop thinking, momentarily, about the countless things beyond my control that deprive me of life, liberty, justice and the pursuit of happiness. It's usually a good day and it is a good thing.

If anyone is still reading this blog - have a safe and happy Thanksgiving, however you think about it.

So far...

So far I am totally not digging this millenium.

Seriously though...

I'm not generally a fan of redneck humor because, well, despite being reared in a redneck area where I was regularly beaten down by redneck authoritarians and the random redneck passer-by, I'm not a redneck. But hey! To each his or her own (if only that were legal).

That said, I think this would be a far less embarassing place to exist if only Larry the Cable Guy would write and perform a new routine around the phrase "Get 'r done right!"

Sorry. Oh! Is this up?

I just wanted to post a quick note to explain my lack of recent posts. Both Christina and I have taken new day-jobs. The move, though positive, has required a great deal of additional effort. It has also coincided with a couple of other efforts which came to fruition in tandem with the move. Consequently we have been completely overwhelmed. We've been busy from the time the alarm clock starts going off pre-dawn until well past our usual bed times, every day for more than a month now.

In short, I apologize for the lack of posts and I'll pick up the pace here once we've gained a little traction.

In the mean time I'm doing everything in my power to make enough time to watch the X-games this weekend... they started last night... this year they've added rally racing.

Jeah.

Screw the mug

"Now that is the first giant step towards long term understanding and friendship!"
~~ Robin Weigert (Calamity Jane) - in response to Aunt Lou's request for a "swig" of her whiskey
~~ "A Rich Find" - Season 3 - Deadwood

Juggle deesh!

It was a weird little weekend. Friday was our last day with our now former employer. We drove to Reston for our debrief. We had spent the week giving our "transitional replacements" a crash course. It became quickly apparent that we did a hell of a lot of work and that it required diverse and extensive skills to do it all. By the time we made out of the office to leave for Reston we were both wired and exhausted.

Saturday I decided to avoid working on the Booze Monkey tune that I had on the schedule. I am recording a Bass Guitar session with damned fine regional musician on the 22nd of this month and the scheduling of that session left me with a fairly loose weekend s'far as the studio was concerned. Consequently I decided to pursue another odd bit of inspiration.

I didn't finish because our little gay sheltie Bourbon experienced some sort of seizure. We rushed him to the emergency vet. By the time we arrived, less than 40 minutes after the problem started, Bourbon was out of it and stable. We plan to do the follow up testing with our usual vet, but we left relatively unworried.

By Saturday night, little had been "accomplished" at the Compound.

Sunday however was rather nice. We did a bunch of verifiable work (I like the verifiable work, it is easier to point to) around the house and despite the fact that I nearly melted the day felt pretty good.

Today marks the start of a new job with a new company in the very same office as before. We started our first day with a lengthy to-do-list. None of that wandering around on the first day for us!

There is a great deal going on, but so far things are managed. All of the balls are (currently) still in the air.

Yay!

Have a great week.

Theives, musicians, serial killers...

While Babble-on was offline earlier this year my pal nlinus started a new podcast called the kNOw Show. His third installment was The Simian Show and paid homage to my podcast The Simian Syndicate. He also uses (to my eternal delight) the Booze Monkey tune "Taylor Boogie" from "Good Luck Mr. Gorsky" as his show's theme song.

I dig the kNOw Show! I find it highly entertaining. I was inspired, flattered and amused by The Simian Show. As Babble-on was offline at the time, nlinus also mentioned the forum in his show. The Babble-on vibe was evident, methinks, throughout the episode. This makes sense as nlinus is a part of the Babble-on community - he is part of that vibe.

As I stated I was also inspired by his show. I decided to pursue this inspiration in the studio this past weekend. The result is a downtempo tune I've entitled "Theives, musicians, serial killers..." and I'm giving away for anyone who might be interested.

I've created a page at SanityCheck.net for the song and I've linked to it from the Simian Syndicate podcast page.

Thanks nlinus!

• Theives, musicians, serial killers... at the Simian Syndicate Site
• The Theives, musicians, serial killers... web page at SanityCheck.net

If you are interested, check it out at the links below. It's free, it's weird, it is best for those who drive around listening to XM's "Chill" station (Christina!).