Imagine reading that with an exasperated breath.
Check this trailer our kiddos it's solid gold I tell you solid gold!
I CAN'T WAIT FOR THIS!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Something new...
I'm sitting at my desk, sick right now wishing I was at home and not here. I would love to be playing some Marvel Ultimate Alliance or Guitar Hero III instead of sitting at my desk, but I need to work.
I've re-opened the blog to all again. I need an outlet to communicate with the rest of the world and I need a space to write out my thoughts on music, movies, art and all that. I will keep my thoughts to my son, my wife, my friends, my love of music, movies, books, art, theatre and comics and leave everyone else out of it from now on.
With that in mind, read on readers and peruse all that is my sordid weird life!
I've re-opened the blog to all again. I need an outlet to communicate with the rest of the world and I need a space to write out my thoughts on music, movies, art and all that. I will keep my thoughts to my son, my wife, my friends, my love of music, movies, books, art, theatre and comics and leave everyone else out of it from now on.
With that in mind, read on readers and peruse all that is my sordid weird life!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
The Boy Is Sick...
Well Asher is right smack dab in the middle of a terrible bout of crud right now. He's got a cough and a runny nose, maybe a bit of a low grade fever and definitely a sore throat. It's heart breaking to watch him struggle with the coughing and the sore throat. Poor little guy, I wish I could make him all better, but of course it has to run it's course. Carrie took him to the doctor yesterday because he was wheezing at times. The doctor said his oxygen saturation was good and it didn't appear that he was having any trouble breathing which was a relief. I just hope the little guy gets better soon. No one likes to be sick, and I'm worried about him. I guess that's just being a parent.
Last week we went and saw a cardiologist for Asher here in Waterloo. We had an echocardiogram and an EKG done on Ash. Both came back normal with no traces of thickening of his heart or any problems at all. Dr. Chandra said everything looked great. He also had a few things to say about Asher's medication. First and foremost was the fact that the dose we are giving Asher is basically like giving him flavored water. For Asher's size the dose we would need to give Asher would be 2.75 ml daily. As of that day we were giving him 1.4 ml daily. Dr. Chandra was quite confused why Iowa City was doing things the way they were and decided that he is going to do some research on Asher's case and see what's going on. He also told us to ween Asher off the medication over the next two weeks and after that cease the medication. Asher's blood pressures, while still high, are close to normal levels and obviously the medication dosage is so low that it's not effective at all. So after those two weeks Asher will be medication free for two weeks and then we will see Dr. Chandra again on March 4th. We will continue to do his blood pressures once a day to moniter them and if they stay normal we are probably going to call this case closed and decide that Asher probably grew out of it. All good news, but it leads me to a few questions about Iowa City.
First, did Dr. Porter simply "do something" with Asher to apease us? Carrie and I were pretty adimit about getting something to happen to solve Asher's high blood pressure issue. Was putting Asher on such a low dose of medication his way of keeping us happy at the same time not doing anything and just waiting it out? Would he have even done this if Carrie wasn't so educated in the medical field and knew what to expect and the compications of Asher condition? I just feel like we were kind of tricked or perhaps they were all sitting around the office talking about us. "Oh you know the Wilkinson's with their little note book of questions and demands for a care plan...we'll just throw them a bone and keep them happy until this kid grows out of this". That's how I feel like we were being treated. Not to mention during our last appointment there we drove down before the snow hit and then we got a big snowstorm. Everybody in the office were scurrying like rats on a sinking ship to get out of there before it got bad and we were suppose to do an echo and they just botched it and said "they weren't prepared". Iowa City has left a bad taste in my mouth and if Dr. Chandra thinks he can handle Ash then we are going to stay with him. If Dr. Chandra thinks it's beyond him then we are going to Mayo. AH, the more I think about this the angrier I get so I'll move on from there.
Any who, Ash is walking like a champ now, he's getting his balance and having a lot of fun doing it. He sure is an amazing little boy!
I've also been scanning some old pictures for nostalgia purposes and putting them up on myspace, I'll post a couple here too so you can see how much I've changed in the last 15 or so years! Enjoy.
My first band Lintscreen this is around 1993 and I was dreading my hair
Carrie and I when we were first dating at my apartment on the hill around 1998 or 1999
This was a press shot for my first solo album under the name Experimental Mind Therapy this in 1998
Guitar player Andy and I discussing our plans for world domination with my first band Lintscreen
Klaatu Verada Nictu
P.S. Speaking of those magic words, last Friday night I went and saw Army of Darkness on the big screen at the College Square Theatres for $4. It was amazing! It was also completely sold out!
Last week we went and saw a cardiologist for Asher here in Waterloo. We had an echocardiogram and an EKG done on Ash. Both came back normal with no traces of thickening of his heart or any problems at all. Dr. Chandra said everything looked great. He also had a few things to say about Asher's medication. First and foremost was the fact that the dose we are giving Asher is basically like giving him flavored water. For Asher's size the dose we would need to give Asher would be 2.75 ml daily. As of that day we were giving him 1.4 ml daily. Dr. Chandra was quite confused why Iowa City was doing things the way they were and decided that he is going to do some research on Asher's case and see what's going on. He also told us to ween Asher off the medication over the next two weeks and after that cease the medication. Asher's blood pressures, while still high, are close to normal levels and obviously the medication dosage is so low that it's not effective at all. So after those two weeks Asher will be medication free for two weeks and then we will see Dr. Chandra again on March 4th. We will continue to do his blood pressures once a day to moniter them and if they stay normal we are probably going to call this case closed and decide that Asher probably grew out of it. All good news, but it leads me to a few questions about Iowa City.
First, did Dr. Porter simply "do something" with Asher to apease us? Carrie and I were pretty adimit about getting something to happen to solve Asher's high blood pressure issue. Was putting Asher on such a low dose of medication his way of keeping us happy at the same time not doing anything and just waiting it out? Would he have even done this if Carrie wasn't so educated in the medical field and knew what to expect and the compications of Asher condition? I just feel like we were kind of tricked or perhaps they were all sitting around the office talking about us. "Oh you know the Wilkinson's with their little note book of questions and demands for a care plan...we'll just throw them a bone and keep them happy until this kid grows out of this". That's how I feel like we were being treated. Not to mention during our last appointment there we drove down before the snow hit and then we got a big snowstorm. Everybody in the office were scurrying like rats on a sinking ship to get out of there before it got bad and we were suppose to do an echo and they just botched it and said "they weren't prepared". Iowa City has left a bad taste in my mouth and if Dr. Chandra thinks he can handle Ash then we are going to stay with him. If Dr. Chandra thinks it's beyond him then we are going to Mayo. AH, the more I think about this the angrier I get so I'll move on from there.
Any who, Ash is walking like a champ now, he's getting his balance and having a lot of fun doing it. He sure is an amazing little boy!
I've also been scanning some old pictures for nostalgia purposes and putting them up on myspace, I'll post a couple here too so you can see how much I've changed in the last 15 or so years! Enjoy.
Klaatu Verada Nictu
P.S. Speaking of those magic words, last Friday night I went and saw Army of Darkness on the big screen at the College Square Theatres for $4. It was amazing! It was also completely sold out!
Friday, February 1, 2008
My editing computer isn't working...
and I'm waiting for my IT guy to get in to take a look at it and figure it out. I'm in the middle of a huge project for Upper Iowa University and one of my monitors on my editing computer just went to crap on me, so what to do? I know, I'll write a blog about two things I've been thinking about.
So as anyone who knows me knows that the band Ministry is a huge influence on me, musically and artisticly and in particular one of Ministry's former vocalists (there have been many along with Al Jourgensen) Chris Connelly. I first discovered Ministry and Chris in the early 90's. I believe it was 1991 when I first heard The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste and was completely blown away especially by the song "So What" which featured Chris Connelly up front on the vocals. The song put a voice to my discontent of my late teens and early twenties and Ministry went on to be the soundtrack to most of my college years. While Ministry evolved and changed members Chris was releasing solo albums as well working with groups like Pigface. I first discovered Chris' first solo album Whiplash Boychild in an ad in Alternative Press Magazine (back then that magazine was my freaking bible not so much any more they focus too much on crappy bands now but back then oh boy Jason Pettigrew; I wanted to be him) it had a big line like "Featuring the vocalist from Ministry and the Revolting Cocks" and it was on Wax Trax! Records, I was sold. At the time I was living with Jay and Rob in a one bedroom apart with way too big of a stereo for our domain but the sound was amazing. Somehow one of us picked up the record, I don't remember who, probably Rob since he was as much into music as I was. Any who we picked it up put it on and turned off the lights and what an experience. Whiplash Boychild was as far away from Ministry as you could get but was still just as dark and scary as anything the Ministry camp could conjure up. We never listened to it with the lights off again! I fell in love with Chris and his style and sound, especially his voice from that point on. On a side note, I still want to cover Ministry's "So What" since it was such an influence on me.
So Chris then releases his second album Phenobarb Bambalam. Holy Amazing Album Batman. Again it was dark and scary but some of his other influences started making there way in too, including a wonderful little "jazz" like diddy called "Too Good Too Be True". Again Chris blew me away and I was hooked. So when his third solo album came out I was at NIACC and was taking a journalism class and was writing for the NIACC student paper LOGOS and I put two and two together. I love music, I love concerts, I love talking to rock stars, hey lets go to concerts and talk to rock stars for LOGOS. It was surprisingly easy to set up interviews with most of my favorite artists and LOGOS was more than happy to publish my "underground" music stories even though the only two I ever did for LOGOS was Pigface and Chris Connelly in 94 (I eventually went on to write for a zine started by myself and at the time current band member Doug DeGenero which was internet only and this was before the internet is what it is today so I never offically saw any of my interviews actually in print with Industry's Cry). Any who I gave away the punchline there didn't I? Oh well. So Chris' third album Shipwreck came out and it was a masterpiece. I'm not speaking biasly either, even Rolling Stone gave it a five star review calling it brillant (I'm obviously paraphrasing here since it's been like 14 years since I read that review). Any who, I'm jumping all around. I forgot to mention that after Phenobarb Bambalam was released I was in Kansas City visiting my mom and picked up a copy of Chirs' imported single "July" which has one of my all time favorite spoken word works called "Trash". I loved the single and cherished it but somehow it got ripped off from me. Before that I had decided I was going to write Chris Connelly a fan letter and tell him how much his music meant to me. In that letter after I blathered on like a school girl about how amazing he was and how much he had influenced me and helped me "get through some tough times" I told Chris that I had the single at one time but it had been stolen. Chris sent back a wonderful letter as well as a copy of the "July" single that he signed just for me. AMAZING!
That sealed the deal. So on his tour for Shipwreck I got an interview set up with his people and I drove to Minneapolis to sit on his tour bus, interview him and watch him perform at the legendary Minneapolis venue First Avenue. I met Chris and we hit it off right away. Chris has a wonderful Scottish accent and a softness about him that I wasn't expecting. He was very kind to me and treated me like a friend more than just a fan or even a snot nosed college journalist angling to meet some of his idols. He gave me a wonderful limited edition poster that he had created specifically for the tour and he gave my girl friend at the time a limited edition vinyl single of some stuff he and William Tucker were working on. It was amazing. So now that you've read this far your probably wondering where this is leading too. Well two things really. Chris and I have kept sporadic contact through the years. I once registered for his forum on his website but only posted on there once a very long time ago but he remembered me. Then with the advent of Myspace we connected again and have chatted every once in awhile. He and his wife had a son just shortly before Asher was born too. Any who, I've asked Chris for an interview again and he has agreed but what I really want to get to is that Chris has released a new book called Concrete, Bulletproof, Invisible + Fried: My Life as a Revolting Cock, here's what the cover looks like.
I got my hands on a copy of the book on Wednesday after work and I'm almost done with it. I think I only have 20 pages left to go. I'll I have to say is, if you are even the least bit of a fan of Chris Connelly, Al Jourgensen or the Chicago Industrial scene you need to read this book. Chirs lays it all on the line to what was going on at the time and spares no one from "the scene". Everyone is in the book from major players like Nivek Ogre (Skinny Puppy) and Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) to sound techs like Critter and tour managers like Jolly Roger (who I accidently made fun of at a Pigface show). This is one amazing book folks and it reads like a who's who of the 80's and 90's industrial scene in Chicago. You need to read this if your even a casual fan. Hell I'll even through a link on here to pick it up from Amazon. Just buy this book and read it. It's an easy read and the prose flows nicely from one thing unto the next. Chris is an enjoyable speaker and the book is written as if he is directly telling you this story. I love it!
Oh yeah there was something else I was going to talk about too and that is my desire to open my own retail store. For some reason this is a dream that just keeps sticking with me. I want to open a retail store that sells Movies, CDs, Comics, T-Shirts and what not. Not the mainstream stuff either, the stuff you can't get anywhere else. It's a pipe dream I know especially with everything going to digital downloads and what not, but it's something I just can't get out of my head. Oh well, maybe someday.
So as anyone who knows me knows that the band Ministry is a huge influence on me, musically and artisticly and in particular one of Ministry's former vocalists (there have been many along with Al Jourgensen) Chris Connelly. I first discovered Ministry and Chris in the early 90's. I believe it was 1991 when I first heard The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste and was completely blown away especially by the song "So What" which featured Chris Connelly up front on the vocals. The song put a voice to my discontent of my late teens and early twenties and Ministry went on to be the soundtrack to most of my college years. While Ministry evolved and changed members Chris was releasing solo albums as well working with groups like Pigface. I first discovered Chris' first solo album Whiplash Boychild in an ad in Alternative Press Magazine (back then that magazine was my freaking bible not so much any more they focus too much on crappy bands now but back then oh boy Jason Pettigrew; I wanted to be him) it had a big line like "Featuring the vocalist from Ministry and the Revolting Cocks" and it was on Wax Trax! Records, I was sold. At the time I was living with Jay and Rob in a one bedroom apart with way too big of a stereo for our domain but the sound was amazing. Somehow one of us picked up the record, I don't remember who, probably Rob since he was as much into music as I was. Any who we picked it up put it on and turned off the lights and what an experience. Whiplash Boychild was as far away from Ministry as you could get but was still just as dark and scary as anything the Ministry camp could conjure up. We never listened to it with the lights off again! I fell in love with Chris and his style and sound, especially his voice from that point on. On a side note, I still want to cover Ministry's "So What" since it was such an influence on me.
So Chris then releases his second album Phenobarb Bambalam. Holy Amazing Album Batman. Again it was dark and scary but some of his other influences started making there way in too, including a wonderful little "jazz" like diddy called "Too Good Too Be True". Again Chris blew me away and I was hooked. So when his third solo album came out I was at NIACC and was taking a journalism class and was writing for the NIACC student paper LOGOS and I put two and two together. I love music, I love concerts, I love talking to rock stars, hey lets go to concerts and talk to rock stars for LOGOS. It was surprisingly easy to set up interviews with most of my favorite artists and LOGOS was more than happy to publish my "underground" music stories even though the only two I ever did for LOGOS was Pigface and Chris Connelly in 94 (I eventually went on to write for a zine started by myself and at the time current band member Doug DeGenero which was internet only and this was before the internet is what it is today so I never offically saw any of my interviews actually in print with Industry's Cry). Any who I gave away the punchline there didn't I? Oh well. So Chris' third album Shipwreck came out and it was a masterpiece. I'm not speaking biasly either, even Rolling Stone gave it a five star review calling it brillant (I'm obviously paraphrasing here since it's been like 14 years since I read that review). Any who, I'm jumping all around. I forgot to mention that after Phenobarb Bambalam was released I was in Kansas City visiting my mom and picked up a copy of Chirs' imported single "July" which has one of my all time favorite spoken word works called "Trash". I loved the single and cherished it but somehow it got ripped off from me. Before that I had decided I was going to write Chris Connelly a fan letter and tell him how much his music meant to me. In that letter after I blathered on like a school girl about how amazing he was and how much he had influenced me and helped me "get through some tough times" I told Chris that I had the single at one time but it had been stolen. Chris sent back a wonderful letter as well as a copy of the "July" single that he signed just for me. AMAZING!
That sealed the deal. So on his tour for Shipwreck I got an interview set up with his people and I drove to Minneapolis to sit on his tour bus, interview him and watch him perform at the legendary Minneapolis venue First Avenue. I met Chris and we hit it off right away. Chris has a wonderful Scottish accent and a softness about him that I wasn't expecting. He was very kind to me and treated me like a friend more than just a fan or even a snot nosed college journalist angling to meet some of his idols. He gave me a wonderful limited edition poster that he had created specifically for the tour and he gave my girl friend at the time a limited edition vinyl single of some stuff he and William Tucker were working on. It was amazing. So now that you've read this far your probably wondering where this is leading too. Well two things really. Chris and I have kept sporadic contact through the years. I once registered for his forum on his website but only posted on there once a very long time ago but he remembered me. Then with the advent of Myspace we connected again and have chatted every once in awhile. He and his wife had a son just shortly before Asher was born too. Any who, I've asked Chris for an interview again and he has agreed but what I really want to get to is that Chris has released a new book called Concrete, Bulletproof, Invisible + Fried: My Life as a Revolting Cock, here's what the cover looks like.
I got my hands on a copy of the book on Wednesday after work and I'm almost done with it. I think I only have 20 pages left to go. I'll I have to say is, if you are even the least bit of a fan of Chris Connelly, Al Jourgensen or the Chicago Industrial scene you need to read this book. Chirs lays it all on the line to what was going on at the time and spares no one from "the scene". Everyone is in the book from major players like Nivek Ogre (Skinny Puppy) and Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) to sound techs like Critter and tour managers like Jolly Roger (who I accidently made fun of at a Pigface show). This is one amazing book folks and it reads like a who's who of the 80's and 90's industrial scene in Chicago. You need to read this if your even a casual fan. Hell I'll even through a link on here to pick it up from Amazon. Just buy this book and read it. It's an easy read and the prose flows nicely from one thing unto the next. Chris is an enjoyable speaker and the book is written as if he is directly telling you this story. I love it!
Oh yeah there was something else I was going to talk about too and that is my desire to open my own retail store. For some reason this is a dream that just keeps sticking with me. I want to open a retail store that sells Movies, CDs, Comics, T-Shirts and what not. Not the mainstream stuff either, the stuff you can't get anywhere else. It's a pipe dream I know especially with everything going to digital downloads and what not, but it's something I just can't get out of my head. Oh well, maybe someday.
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