Here’s a few accounts I’ve run across that are making me chuckle.

• Darth Vader
• General Veers
• The Death Star PR Department
• Emperor Paltatine
• Jek “Porky” Porkins
• Qui-Gon Jin

There’s tons more, but let’s not get stupid.

And so today I told our worship pastor I was stepping down from the worship team. And honestly, I don’t really have a full grasp on why. All I know is that things have changed. I’ve changed, the band has changed, the music has changed. And it’s simply no longer fun to me.

When I first started playing music, I knew even back then, 25 years ago, that I would never be a professional musician. Sure, you kind of kick the idea around, but deep down I knew I would never walk away from all responsibility and rely on something as fickle and unreliable as music to support myself and my family. And so I told myself then, that music was going to be my outlet. My stress reliever. I was going to use it as a means to blow off steam. I mean really, I’m a drummer, i get to hit crap with wood sticks and get praised for it! So that was going to be the type of drummer I would become. Whoever would watch me play, would know that I was having nothing less than an blast. And so that’s why I had to step down. Because I just wasn’t having a blast anymore.

It’s a big decision for me because I’ve been playing at this church for 13 years. I’ve recorded two albums with them. I’ve played literally hundreds of services for unknown thousands of people over the years. But as time moves on, eventually the “old guard” must move on as well.

When I first started playing at Clovis HIlls I was 30 years old. Many of the guys in the band were in their 40′s. And one by one as younger people came in with new energy and new ideas, the older guys, already having spent years busting their butts on the scene, moved on. It’s not really a bad thing. It’s just the way it is.

And so I think that’s where I am. I’ve been doing this for so long that I don’t really care about analyzing music or obsessing over technique anymore. I just want to get behind the kit and do what I know how to do.

So it’s been a good run, and I thank God for giving me the opportunity to serve his people for so long. Playing at Clovis Hills really saved me in many ways. I know they will continue to provide one of the best worship experiences around and I wish them the best.

So what’s next? That is the million dollar question. I just told an old friend of mine that I would never quit playing, and I don’t intend on letting my drums collect dust. I might do a little recording. I have a few gigs lined with with other friends so I’ll definitely do those. Or I might start looking for a new band to jam with. Maybe a rock band to play some outdoor festivals and stuff.

We’ll see.

Now Bansky is the king of street art because nobody has ever seen his face and his “work”, or graffiti if you will, has appeared on structures all over the world. So there this huge mystique around him. Well, Thierry befriends Bansky and becomes his sidekick, documenting his work.

At one point, the street art culture hits mainstream and street art starts selling big. Bansky tells Thierry it’s time to cut that video together and finish the documentary. So Thierry goes away for six months and comes back with an atrocious piece of video that really doesn’t document anything. It’s basically garbage, because Thierry really wasn’t anything more than some guy who could afford a camera. So Bansky tells him to take off and persue his own street art and let him cut the film together. This is where the documentary gets interesting.

Theirry goes off and begins doing street art. Now mind you, Thierry is not an “artist”. He’s never done street art. But he’s watched all the best guys do it. So he copies their techniques. Eventually he starts getting publicity and he decides he’s going to have a giant art show like the big boys. So he mortgages his house, rents out a giant building in L.A., hires a bunch of artists and starts having them put together prints and art pieces. He creates a buzz so big that by the time his gallery opens there’s thousands of people in line to see his “work”. The guy makes millions of dollars and even ends up creating the album cover for Modonna’s greatest hits album.

The funniest part of all this is that the “real” artists, are totally pissed at Thierry. Basically this guy comes out of nowhere, with no talent whatsoever, other than extreme confidence, and becomes the biggest artist in L.A. in less than a year. He didn’t even make his own art! He paid other guys to make it for him based on his “vision”.

It’s hilarious because Bansky and these other “artists” really were doing the same thing, they just hadn’t done it as well. Thierry was simply able to cut through the artist ego holding those guys back, and just go for pure market manipulation. The guy is really brilliant.

So basically what I came away with from this movie is that art is crap. The art itself means absolutely nothing. It’s not about talent, or vision, or technique or any of that. What it really comes down to is the image of the artist and what’s hot and trendy right now. Because people in the art culture just want to hang with the cool kids. They want to feel important, and smarter than everyone else. They want to gossip about the latest and greatest. So if an artist creates enough buzz around himself to be considered super cool or mysterious, he could sh*t on a plate and put a cherry on top and it would sell for a million dollars. Thierry proved this without a doubt because that’s exactly what he did.

So I know I gave a lot of the movie away, but I suggest you rent it anyway. Then, go out and start making “art”.

The Roku is a pretty cool device. It’s nothing fancy, just a small black box with a simple remote control. The interface is basic and not very fast, but it works. I immediately connected to Netflix and Amazon Video on Demand. There are something like 100 channels for the Roku but honestly, other than the two I just mentioned, they are all garbage.

So I was pretty excited to hear about Hulu+ coming to the Roku. Hulu has a lot of content, including my two favorite shows, Community and Saturday Night Live and at $8 a month, it’s not expensive. Unfortunately I was severely let down. Here are the problems I see with Hulu+ and internet streaming TV in general.

1. Many of the programs watchable on Hulu online are not available for streaming on my Roku device due to some kind of licensing issue. You can search and find the shows but when you press play it says you can only watch them on your computer. WHAT?? This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. I thought the idea of TV was to have people watch your programs?? And hey man, I’m PAYING for your channel!!!

2. The Roku interface for Hulu+ is so hard to navigate and the text is so small, it’s almost unusable. I dont’ know who designs these interfaces, but they must all have 65″ HDTV’s and perfect eyesight. Oh, and I love how the description is cut off on almost every show so you can’t tell what it’s about unless you watch 20 minutes of it. That is, if they let you watch it at all (see #1).

3. There’s so much junk on the Roku that it’s very hard to get to the good stuff. Junk meaning shows from the 70′s, amateur hour stuff, and clips. Sorry man, Adam 12 and the Howdy Doody show do NOTHING for me. That crap my be interesting for about 10 minutes when I’m feeling nostalgic, but then I want something current. And the YouTube style stuff? Steve Jobs said it right; “People don’t want amateur hour on their TV’s”. Amateur video is cool when you’re at your desk and you see something funny and you want to send it to a friend, but when I’m on the couch with a glass of wine, I could care less about read headed kids throwing tantrums or cats playing piano. And clips of TV shows… Dude, I DON’T HAVE CABLE. I bought this stupid box so I could watch your shows. Why on earth would I want to watch a clip and then have to go find your stupid show on live TV? I’m already here, let me watch the entire show, RIGHT NOW.

4. Episodes are not available long enough. I watch TV in bunches. I’ll watch a whole season in a week or two, but the shows on Hulu expire so quickly that if I miss shows early in the season, it’s just not worth watching the show at all because it’s too hard coming into a show in mid-season. So why expire the shows? Again, I though the goal of producing television shows was to get people to watch them (actually, watch the commercials).

So I’m just perplexed at the media industry. They produce all this content and then refuse to fully embrace the new channels of distribution. If it were me, I’d have “channels” for each network. No amateur crap. I’d include current commercials in all programs so the service could be free, just like over the air TV. I’d have an interface that you could sort by date (which nobody seems to provide) so you could filter out (or find) older shows, and I’d watch the rating for all shows and dump the ones that people don’t watch so my viewers wouldn’t have to wade through 100 shows that everyone hates just to find the good stuff.

Come on media industry. Get it together.

First off let’s talk music. I bought Ozzy Osbourne’s new album a few weeks ago. Now honestly, I’m not a huge Ozzy fan lately. Since he’s become a “reality” show poster boy, I’ve been a little turned off to his music. However, the new album is exceptionally strong. With new guitarist Gus G., Ozzy is once again on the cutting edge of metal. This album is heavy, melodic, and furious, and after several years of cliche garbage, Ozzy is back with some serous metal. Gus G. Is a monster and really brings some fresh blood to Ozzy’s writing. Great album.

Speaking of Ozzy, his last guitarist Zakk Wylde has a new album and it is outstanding. Sometimes great artists just need to explore things on their own terms, and so Zakk’s album while not ground breaking, is fantastically heavy and vicious, with wicked solos and beautifully melodic choruses which make it really stand out among his recent releases.

I’ve also bought The new album by Disturbed, which is a shredder as well. Again, it’s nothing ground breaking, but it holds true to their style and is immensely enjoyable.

I wish I could say the same for Linkin Park’s new disc which I just wasted $15 hard earned dollars on. It’s not so much that it sucks as it is just so different and experimental compared to the previous albums. I understand the need for bands to branch out and explore different musical styles, but do that in a side project, where people expect something odd. Don’t bilk your dedicated fans so you can indulge yourselves. This album is nothing more than a keyboard/sampler geek fest and I’m pissed that I spent my money on something I just can’t listen to.

OK so let’s move on to another favorite subject of mine; beer. We went to a beer festival in the Tower District today and it was awesome. So many great beers being brewed right here in the valley! I think the stand out for me was the red ale from Three Monkeys Brewing. It was darker than a traditional red and had a little taste of maple syrup on the finish. It was truly unique and delicious.

I’m getting ready to start my third batch of my own American Biker Pale Ale myself tonight and I feel really good about this third iteration of my own recipe. Home brewing has been a really cool experience and I’m having tons of fun making and drinking my own beer.

So my last subject of this Frankenstein post is Las Vegas Bikefest! I’m so excited about this ride that I can barely contain myself. I’m so looking forward to four days of riding, hanging out with other bikers, looking at custom bikes, drinking great beers, and most of all spending time with my girl, Michelle. It’s going to be an outstanding weekend.

Alright so tests about all I have today. I hope everyone is having a killer Sunday. Peace out yo.

Update: Sorry for the lousy spelling if you read this post yesterday. It’s hard typing on an iPad.

The high point of tonight was just that we played so well together. I felt good about the tempos and the intros and outros (always the hardest part for a drummer, well for me anyway), my wrists were in good shape with my new drum layout, and it felt like the crowd really dug it.

The only downside was that I had to do a little 8 bar solo and I felt it came out like trash. I’ve never liked soloing. Honestly, I’ve never even like listening to drum solos. I’ve always loved just laying down some fatness for the band. That’s what I do. It’s the entirety of the song that matters, not the drums as a solo instrument, so I was disappointed in my solo. The rest kicked butt though, so I suppose I can look past those 8 bars.

It’s been a cool project to be involved in though. Paul started fleshing out some of these songs almost two years ago. Everyone involved gave a lot of hours putting these songs together, giving input, coming up with parts, demoing them, eventually recording them, then rehearsing for the show, and finally getting to play them live.

And so I’m kind of sad that my involvement with the project is finished. Recently I’ve been thinking of just hanging up the drums altogether. I’ve been doing this for a long freaking time. I’m developing arthritis in my wrists and it’s gotten kind of routine… not boring or unsatisfying, just kind of “regular”… just learning other people’s songs and playing for 15 minutes at the beginning of a church service. But this little project has made me realize that I love playing and I especially love playing original songs.

My wife would never let me sell my drums anyway. She’s knows me too well to think I would just stop playing. Something would eventually come along to spark my interest and I’d be buying a new kit again.

So for now, I go back to serving at church. But I think I’m ready to get back into an original project. I’ve been teasing my long time guitarist buddy Frank that we should put together an original blues band and do the car show circuit. Ha! We’ll see what happens.

I might actually remix this video with a heavy metal soundtrack. And by the way, I’m fairly sure that Hell consists of nothing but those creepy cow spiders.

Click here to view the embedded video.

First up: P90X. Michelle and I finished our first round of P90X last week and have started the program over again. The question everyone wants to know the answer to is: “Does it work”? Well, I would say that depends. Like any other exercise program it depends on how hard you work, and what you eat. These programs love to show people losing 50lbs and getting six pack abs in 90 days, and that’s certainly possible for some. But the reason most of us are fat and tired is because we simply eat wrong and don’t put in the time to exercise. So unless you change habits, this program is no better than any other.

What I do like about this program though is that it’s got great variety and it doesn’t require fancy equipment. For me those are the two things that make it easy for me to stick to it. So for me, it’s working. I’m building muscle and losing fat. My progress has been slower because, well, I just don’t want to make exercising a full time hobby. I miss a day here and there. And I like to have a pizza and beer occasionally. But overall I’m happy with the progress. I feel much stronger, I’ve lost 7 pounds, and I still enjoy doing the program, so for me it’s a total win.

Ok, so since I mentioned beer, let’s switch gears and talk about home brew. I’ve been home brewing for a few months now and I’m happy to announce that my second batch has gone into the bottles. In two weeks I will have a beautiful Dry Irish Stout. Oh man, it smelled so good when I cracked open the fermenter yesterday. I think this is going to me a very nice batch. So on May 7th, the bottles go into the fridge and it’s time to have a tasting party! Put it on your calendars. I’ve also got the ingredients for my next batch already which I plan to cook up early next week. It’s going to be a mild Ale and only takes 4 weeks to make, so I’m hoping to get a nice rotation of beers going on. I’m telling you though, this whole bottling thing sucks. I really gotta get me a kegging system soon.

OK, lastly let’s talk about some music because there’s been a few great albums that have hit the streets recently.

Slash released what I think is his second solo album. The cool thing about this album is that on each song he collaborated with a different singer. The result is an incredibly varied album with musical styles ranging from arena rock to blues to metal to southern rock, you name it.

I’m completely blown away by this album. There’s really not a bad song on it, though the one with Iggy Pop called “We’re All Gonna Die” is probably the dumbest song lyrically, but it’s still catchy. The tracks I think are most impressive are the instrumental with Dave Grohl called “Watch This”, “Beautiful Dangerous” with Fergie (who know she could rock?), and the two songs featuring Myles Kennedy. Kennedy in my mind is the absolute best rock singer on the planet and if you want to see what he’s capable of, check out the band Alter Bridge. He’s also did a track on Sevendust’s last album which was fantastic. Slash is a great album full of great rock and roll. Pick it up.

And speaking of Sevendust (am I not the master of the segue?), my favorite band in the entire world has released their 8th studio album and the first since original guitarist Clint Lowery returned to the band after leaving in 2004.

This album is flat out amazing. While the albums written in Lowery’s absence where killer, I really didn’t realize how much had been lost in his absence. Yeah there were high points, but a lot of those songs sounded just a tad flat in comparison to this latest collection. The new album is ferocious, melodic, emotional and extremely powerful. It just smacks you right in the face with track one and continues pummeling you all the way through track twelve. It’s simply fantastic.

I’d say the stand out tracks are Splinter, which is a metal heads dream. Crazy guitar antics, insane double base runs, and ferocious chunkiness. Great way to start the ride. They immediately follow that with Forever which is my favorite track on the album. It sounds like no other Sevendust song with it’s great dynamics, it’s breakneck soaring chorus line and crunchy breakdowns. It saw them do this one live and it was amazing. The rest of the album continues with exactly what you’d expect from a Sevendust album and that’s a good thing. Sevendust is one of those bands that know what they do best and don’t vary too much from the formula. It’s good melodic heavy metal. The way it should be.

Alright so that’s my catch up post! Today is Saturday and it’s going to be a beautiful sunny California day so I’m gonna do my P90X this morning and then get on the bike and go visit an old buddy of mine back in my high school stomping grounds, Manteca. This guy was the bass player of my very first band. I haven’t seen him in 20 years. This should be good times.

We drove down Thursday morning and checked into the Silverton Casino. Every time we go to Vegas we like to stay someplace different, and in Vegas you can do that so easily. We go three or four times a year and have almost never stayed in the same place twice. The Silverton is a smaller casino/hotel just off the southern end of the strip. What this means is that it’s about half the price of a strip casino yet only 3 miles from the action. So if you have a car, it’s a great deal. Of course it’s more relaxed and not as trendy as most strip casinos but then again Michelle and I are more into shooting pool than we are “clubbing” so it works for us. Anyway, we checked in and then headed down to Fremont street for a beer and Ruben at Hennesey’s, then strolled over to the Cuban Cigar Factory for some killer smokes. I highly recommend this cigar shop. The owner is a super cool guy, the prices are awesome and the smokes are second to none.

On Friday we decided to check out the new Las Vegas City Center which is the latest mega-resort complex right in the center of The Strip across the street from the Harley Davidson Cafe. I gotta say, I was less than impressed. Don’t get me wrong, it’s super high class. Everything is first rate. But it’s just boring. The shopping area is really cool and could easily be a movie set for some futuristic sci-fi flick, but the stores are all so ridiculously high-end, you really can’t even window shop without a credit check. We also checked out the Aria hotel/casino and while it was very, very nice, I just felt like I didn’t belong there with my middle class salary. It did have one high point and that was an English style pub we found. The staff was cool there and they had great english style food and a truckload of imported beers on tap. They also had a gimmick going where they would turn an hourglass over and if you could drink a beer before the sands ran out, they’d buy the next round. I timed the hourglass at 7 seconds and promptly passed on the challenge. LOL!

After we got stuffed on fish and chips and english beer we found a bowling alley and bowled a few games. michelle of course kicked my butt with a 191 on the first game and something like a 170 on the second. I turned down a third game and decided we needed to go!

We then headed to the Sevendust show at the House of Blues. I can’t say enough about this band and I’m listening to them as I write this post. They’ve been doing this so long that they could play a show in their sleep. However, they were as energetic and obviously having as much fun as the very first time I saw them over 10 years ago. These guys are just fantastic and the House of Blues is probably my favorite venue in the world. It was an absolutely outstanding show. I really don’t know what else to say about them.

So even though it was a quick three days in Vegas, especially with two of those days spent mostly driving, Michelle and I just had a fantastic time. Though I’m not one to post mushy messages on my blog or Facebook about how my wife “completes me” or is my “soul mate”, I have to say that we have a lot of fun together. I’m so blessed that after 21 years, we can just hang out and have a few beers together, walk around holding hands, and laugh our asses off while just doing the simplest of things. It was truly an outstanding time all the way around.

Click here to view the embedded video.