Crasymaker

If you get a chance, head over to my sister’s site and leave her a congratulatory comment for passing the State Board of Cosmetology exam. She is now an official beauty maker. For real, she was at the top of her class and passed with flying colors. I am super proud of her, however, I never had a doubt that she would become anything less than excellent at whatever she chose to do. Congratulations, Katie.

PS- She cuts a mean mullet.

Dammit! Every year I buy Christmas lights for the house and every year I always end up having to go back to the store for more. This year I decided to play it smart and measure the front of our house. I got out the tape measure and discovered that it is exactly 48.5 feet from one side to the other. When we got to the store I noticed there were two icicle light lengths to choose from. 18 feet and 13 feet. 18+18+13=49. Perfect! Right? Wrong!

This year, it wasn’t the length that screwed me up. After putting up the first 18 feet, I opened the second box only to discover that this package held lights with WHITE wire. The first strand had green wire. The last box also had white wire. For Christ’s sake, DO PEOPLE REALLY HAVE A PREFERENCE?!? And if so, why in the hell do you pretty much have to read the fine print to discover that there is a CHOICE?!? So this year has proven to be no exception. Back to the store for more lights. Merry Freakin’ Christmas.

UPDATE: I’ve gotten several comments and emails about this topic. Most are informing me that the green wire is for your Christmas tree and the white wire is for your house. I don’t believe I have ever seen icicle style lights on a Christmas tree so that pretty much ruins that theory. For a second there, I thought maybe the green wire was for bushes/shrubs, however, there are an entirely different style of lights for bushes/shrubs besides icicle lights. Yeah, I am pretty sure icicle lights are reserved solely for decorating your house, therefore, the mystery remains unsolved…

After nearly ten years of serving up the best in independent label music, Clunk Records is closing it’s doors for good and I am partially to blame. When Charlie called me the other day to ask if I would come up with one final Clunk t-shirt design because December is the last month that the store would be open, I felt my stomache nearly drop to my knees.
I buy all of my CDs from Clunk Records but that’s not the problem. The problem is I can’t remember the last time I actually bought a CD. And it’s people like me who have contributed to the end of a decade-long run of one of the best music stores ever.

There’s a whole slew of topics that arise when considering buying CDs vs. downloading but for me, I am kind of surprised at how much I have adopted the latter, given my possibly abnormal passion for music. I was always the first to argue against the iTunes music store when the topic arose. My main concerns were that when downloading music you don’t receive the artwork that came with the original CD, you don’t have the right to play the music on as many computers as you want to and you don’t even get full quality music because MP3s have been compressed to accomodate the need for a smaller file size. So why is it that I have all but completely dropped the habit of buying actual CDs?

I suppose it’s because all three of my main arguments against downloading MP3s are no longer issues for me. At some point in the last couple of years, I have become annoyed as hell with CDs. Much like vinyl records became a huge pain in the ass to store/carry/play, CDs have taken on the same pain, at least for me. And as for the booklet that I was so worried about, I have no idea why but I couldn’t care any less about looking through those things anymore. Maybe it’s because I am so much busier these days than I used to be or maybe it’s not me at all. Maybe things are just changing and that’s all there is to it.

As far as not being able to play your downloaded MP3s on as many computers as you’d like, I have already discussed the workaround for that issue and as amazing as it sounds, I don’t give a crap about MP3s being of a lesser quality than CDs. I’m sure it has something to do with just being used to hearing music at a lower quality but even if that’s the case, who cares?

I haven’t changed my habit of listening to music nearly non-stop, but I have definitely changed my means of acquiring and playing it. And with that change brings the downfall of things like CD players, small CD manufacturing companies and most unfortunately, small music stores like Clunk Records.

I’m not sure what else to say except that I am sorry Chris and Charlie and thank you for ten (eight) years of supplying me with music that has not only helped to change my life but also the lives of most of my friends and family.

…my ass.

Grunge songs rule. Financial songs also rule. Tuesday is pretty lame but combine the three and you have one semi-badass hit. Check it out if you wanna. Naw, yeah.

Head straight over to the Videos Section and check out the latest Crasymaker video called “Heavy Metal.”

Overheard at The Gypsy last night just before Fulton played:

Booking Lady: “So how long are you guys playing again?”

Band Member: “You know, the usual. 45 minutes or so.”

Booking Lady: “Oh, I was under the impression you were playing a full set.”

Band Member: “Uh…”

Booking Lady: “Well, that’s one strike against you.”

The lady then went on to say something to the extent of tonight being their “audition” to be able to play another show on a better night and that she suggested they “jam between songs” in order to extend their set length.

I have dealt with bar owners/promoters who act like this before. It’s nothing new but it still never ceases to amaze me at how out of touch these people can be. I commend Fulton for playing a 45-minute set and then leaving the stage. Unfortunately, they probably won’t be playing The Gypsy anymore because of it. It’s sad too, because for a minute there, I actually thought The Gypsy might be the new JR’s as far as live music is concerned.

The Dart Room, anyone?

If you want to be as much of a dweeb as I am, then check out some more photos of my new 2006 Honda Element.

I’ve been looking at Honda Elements for a long time now but those plastic bumpers and side panels have always rubbed me the wrong way. This year, however, there’s a new one called the Element EX-P that is all metal and all one color. Well, it’s X-mas bonus season and when the airbag and horn went out on my Saturn yesterday, I couldn’t resist driving over to the Honda dealership. Needless to say, I drove off in a brand new Element.

• 2.4-liter, 16-valve, DOHC i-VTEC® 4-cylinder engine
• 156 hp @ 5500 rpm, 160 lb.-ft. @ 4500 rpm
• 4-speed automatic transmission
• 4-wheel disc brakes
• Immobilizer Theft-Deterrent System
• Steering wheel-mounted audio controls
• Redesigned 16″ alloy wheels
• Dual power side mirrors
• Dual-stage, dual-threshold front airbags (SRS)
• Front side airbags w/ passenger-side Occupant Position Detection System (OPDS)
• Cruise control
• Power front windows with auto-up/down driver’s window
• Power door and tailgate locks
• Real Timeâ„¢ 4-wheel drive
• Removable skylight with tilt feature
• Anti-lock braking system (ABS)
• Electronic Brake Distribution system (EBD)
• MP3/auxiliary input jack
• 270-watt AM/FM/CD audio system with MP3/WMA playback capability and 7 speakers including a 6.5″ patented DLP subwoofer
• XM® Satellite Radio

The Pin Pals are a team of elite bowling enthusiasts. Actually, they’re just some friends of mine who happen to play in a local bowling league. Since softball is over until springtime, I’ve been itching to do something on Tuesdays. Fortunately for me (unfortunately for the Pin Pals), they were short a bowler (actually 3) tonight and so I filled in. I am not a very good bowler. I usually get worse with each game and tonight was no exception. Here are my scores for all three games:

• Game 1: 124
• Game 2: 114
• Game 3: 106

I have never seen so many people in one place in Fayetteville who are definitely not from Fayetteville. Also, the lady bowling next to us was actually named Flo. Add $2 beers to that and you’ve got yourself one sweet night. WHOA! Cocktail is on TBS!

This Halloween marks the second year in a row that I pushed aside the usual zombie costume for something else. Last year I was some weird rando and this year I was a banana. I think I’ll ditch the ole zombie for good cause funny costumes kick the crap out of scary ones. As a matter of fact, I don’t think I saw a single scary costume at the Halloween dance party last night. Here’s a recap of what I can remember costume-wise:

• Me: banana
• Sarah: bumble bee
• Bryan B.: Freddie Mercury
• Jonathan: gay redneck
• Eric: a gangsta carrot
• Laura: a pea
• Jason: a rasta dude?
• Jill: a meth addict
• Nick & Chris: Team Zissou members
• Sage: RoboSage 1.0 (#1 costume)
• Jay: Extra-Long Cape Man
• Paul: Beetle Juice
• Tessa: Veruca Salt

There were a ton more but I had like 2 beers so I don’t really remember much else. I’ve got some pictures to add to the gallery but until then, you can check out Sarah’s blog or Laura’s blog to see more pics.

16 of us went camping this past weekend at Long Pool recreation area near Russelville, Arkansas. Just a few of the highlights:

• Ed’s Flags & Stuff - Stopped and bought a huge beer flag and Skoal Bandits/Red Man hats
• Doo Doo tent - Jonathan’s spare tent actually smelled like feces
• Left-handed football - Learning (read: not learning) to throw a football left-handed…and drunk.
• Evanescence’s brother - Crashed a party of 90 random weirdos. Brother of the guitar player of Evanescence playing guitar with drunk, redneck bongo players.
• Keller - Semi-retarded kid that visited our site about 6 times screaming, “HELLO EVERYBODYYYYYYY!”

Check out the photos here.

I can’t decide whether the built-in music store that comes with iTunes is a good thing or a bad thing.

On one hand, I absolutely love being able to purchase a CD at my desk while at work for only $9.99 and have it charged directly to my credit card. It’s way easier than using my entire lunchbreak to head down to the store and spend upwards of $16.99 for the exact same music. Plus, it’s already in my digital music library (the only library I use to listen to music now) once it finishes downloading which saves me yet another step.

That said, I also absolutely love having the actual CD. I like displaying the case on my CD rack in my living room and being able to flip through the booklet that comes with it. I can, of course, pop it into my computer and quickly add it to my digital library and I’ve acheived pretty much the same outcome. The extra money usually is justified by having a physical copy of everything.

Recently, the iTunes Music Store has started including a digital PDF copy of the artwork and in some cases, you now receive other extras with the purchase of an album as well. For example, when I bought the newest Ryan Adams CD, Jacksonville City Nights, a week ago, I not only received a PDF of the artwork but also included was a short documentary video about the album. Very cool.

One major debate about the iTunes music store is that when you buy your music there, you are buying files that are encrypted in such a manner that you are limited in your use of the music. Although this is completely true, there are more workarounds than you could possibly imagine. For example, when you buy a song from the iTunes Music Store, you are only allowed to listen to that album on 5 computers. Also, you can only burn either 7 or 10 (I can’t remember) copies of that album. After you’ve maxed out the 5 computer rule and burned the maximum amount of CDs, the files are in a sense, worthless. However, there is a ridiculously simple way around all of this. So simple, in fact, that I can’t even believe that this is a topic of debate anymore. Try this on for size: 1) Purchase the album from the iTunes Music Store 2) burn one copy onto a CD 3) Delete the original files that you bought from your computer and 4) Import the songs from the CD into your library just like you would if you had actually bought the CD at a store. The End. At this point, the files you just imported are unencrypted and you can listen to them on as many computers as you want and you can burn as many CDs as you want. The entire process takes about 5 minutes.

When I sit down and think about it, I feel like I’m pretty much right in the middle but when it comes down to where I prefer to buy my music, I definitely tend to swing in the direction of the iTunes Music Store. In fact, the last dozen or so albums I’ve bought are from there. If the music store didn’t exist, I would still definitely be buying all of the same CDs from a real store but since it’s there, it’s just way too easy not to use it.

I guess it really doesn’t matter all that much. For some reason, though, I still feel a little guilty…

Happy Birthday to the most amazing person I have ever known. I love you.