Theres nothing I can add to this for a short description. St John's seen in the background.

If only the winter weather didn't suck so much... oh and yeah that whole 30 minute timezone thing - I'd seriously consider moving there, the people of Newfoundland are some of the best souls on Earth.. 

Six of us ate at Levains on Valentines Day. We made a reservation, showed up right on time, patiently waited while they shat themselves in trying to sit a table of six in a room full of two-toppers, and sat down really close to each other and had our meal.
The meal. Was, good? It was good actually, but honestly for the price, the(insert American overeater) amount of food was well disappointing. The service was as usual good, and the suggested wine pairings were of course perfect and new. However, this was not the typical experience we were so used to having at such an established fine jewel of 48th and Chicago south.  It was... ok.

Discontent with a single meal is one thing, but this was Levains! This was what we looked forward to. Everything about Levains has been better than good - great.  Just missed this one...

Not able to simply let things dissolve into potentially forcing ourselves to find greener pastures, we(Steph) sent an email explaining our dining experience that night to the establishment. Whomever might read it, we thought, would want to know this sort of thing. And that's what great about this place too, you get the impression they want to become better.  That just telling them, "yeah it was good" tells them NOTHING!

While I was away in Hanover MN(different story for a different time) F & Steph went back to Levains to celebrate Stephs new James Bond spy car purchase. Yeah, they went back. Of course they did, V-Day wasn't that bad, just could have been better.  They sit down at the table and the waiter comes over and the following conversation takes place:

Waiter: "Where you guys here on Valentines Day per chance?"
F & Steph: "Yep"
Waiter: (while glancing over his shoulder at the head chef) "Well, chef says your meal is entirely comped tonight"
F & Steph: "Huh?"
Waiter: "Yep so what'll ya have?"

They proceed to give their orders and finish dinner.  A mighty fine one at that.  The taste of free is always an enhancement to any sauce or simmer. Time for desert.

Waiter: "So, what's for desert then?"
F & Steph: "Nah nothing. We're totally fine"
Waiter: (again talking loud enough so that Chef could hear in the kitchen) "Nope you're getting a desert so what'll it be?"

They order a single desert and tell them they'll just split it. The waiter leaves and returns with two deserts, and claims it's a mistake! Whoopsy!

Now that's how you run a restaurant.  Chef not only remembered their faces from the several times they have dined in months past, but remembered their faces from one of the arguably busiest nights for a joint like this every year.  Not sure if he read the email or not, but even still... nice one chef.

Last Friday the Ska Kings headed into the studio with what seemed at the time to be a dubious task. Recording rhythm, horns and vox all in 2 and 1/3 days. Could we do it? At the very least the goal was to get Ryan and Cruzer on tape(disk) as they would be unavailable due to G-Dub's war. I'm happy to say that not only did we get them tracked, we got everyone tracked. All that's left at this point is adding some aux percussion and mixing/leveling by committee.

Perhaps needless to mention is how exhausted I am from tracking this last album. I wasn't there every waking minute, but to put things in a loose perspective, consider this:
 - Listen to your favorite 11 tracks that you know by heart; that is, beat, lyrics, solos, horn lines, guitar part
 - Listen to each one approximately 9 or 10 times in the span of an hour paying attention to a different part each time
 - Now perform 3-4 takes of each song playing each note as flawlessly as possible
 - Do this perfectly with 2-3 other people all playing perfectly, if one messes up it might mean another take
 - Sit for 3-4 hours listening to the other people doing the same songs
 - Sing a few of the songs(perfectly and in tune) lead part
 - Sing backup on the same or other songs
 - Arrive early the next morning to do the same thing
 - Repeat as necessary

Now, I'm not whining by any means. It's absolute joy when a song comes together and is exciting while you are recording it. It's your chance, you see, to make a mark on the world. However, not only will your friends/peers/family listen to it and tell you it was "good", YOU have to listen to it over and over. YOU have to be happy enough with it to not hate it in 3-4 months, because after that you definitely will.

I am happy with my performance. Happy, not excited or blazingly proud. And I think that's just going to be how it is with me.  Which, at the end of the day, isn't a horrible thing. It's the thing that keeps me practicing, trying, keep on keepin on.  Sounds lame, but Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Bill of Rights "the pursuit of happiness" for just such a purpose. Wow... ok that's good with all that.

Cocktails Before Funerals*
The Secondhand Ska Kings

1 - 400 Miles
2 - Ruder Than You
3 - Not That Kind
4 - Immediacy
5 - Good Dog
6 - Make Trouble
7 - Cheap Trixx
8 - The Ballad of Texahoma
9 - Over
10 - Chinese Newspaper
11 - Rebound

* Working Title

it's German email spam.

Lately my SAP inbox has been filled with it.

There must have been a breakthrough with the people who insist that email marketing works. They must have discovered this secret formula, after years of meticulous research and debate, finally, they have the ability to send me, a non-German speaking American, spam in German! Ye God's be praised!

Or perhaps in a move to keep the world's 3rd largest economy going, SAP, being one of DE's Fortune 50, relaxed ever so gently the spam filters so that it's 41,000 employees would have the opportunity to buy watches, software, and get their MBA - all from the comfort of their cubicle or domicile.

Which reminds me of something my American born German colleague once told me when I was in Waldorf.  Apparently, it's federal law that an employees desk be no further than 6 or so meters from an OPEN window, or a window that opens.  Damn. So much for that maligned mail room clerk swearing at the man from the depths of the furnace room.  Nope, in Germany you have the RIGHT to fresh air and natural light when you're at WERK!

Which brings me to my next point. For some reason, Last.FM insists on recommending I listen to German Ska. I know I'm a big fan of Dr Ring Ding, but I had no idea the Kraut's were this into Reggae/Ska.  And not necessarily the punk-ska that sounds more like Minor Threat that you might expect, the cheesy Real Big Fish hollywood Ska.

Dear Santa,
Please don't let the next Star Trek movie, number 11, be like the Muppet Babies of the Muppets. Please oh dear Santa, I've never asked for much.


Above: Remorse.

Below: My greatest fear. That chair's way too big for him.

Thank you to all the residents of the apartment building in Crookston that don't know how to configure their wireless router. Now I have wireless internet too. And if one goes shallow, there are 3 other ones to choose from.

(with Ozzy sounding music in background)

Brah. Ice brah. This stuff 'll kill you brah. You gotta git offa da ice brah.

I'm watching a Dog the Bounty Hunter marathon. Mainly because the missus turned it on and subsequently fell asleep with the remainder being my indescribable fascination seeing this ultra-religious, ex-con, yell at, handcuff, toss into an SUV and then coach and reason with the crackhead filling him/her with remorse to haunt them during the next 48 hours of processing while they await sentencing. Because after that, they'll pretty much forget what he said, since they were a) high to begin with and b) really high.

This fascinates me because all Dog is doing is getting his money. He's going to get his money or he's going to get you.  He does this while talking about not swearing in front of his 8 kids, praying before leaving on a raid, or tearing up while talking to a crackheads wife.  It's incredibly inane and poignant all at once. It's like if Rambo wrote and delivered Hallmark cards and then they made a show about it.  Dog leant you the crackhead $10,000 so you wouldn't go to jail. You owe Dog the money. You don't answer the phone or report to your P.O. You're on the run.  You mind as well be satan incarnate as far as Mr Chapman is concerned.

Dog does some good things. He pep talks his boys, he shows others how to be nice, he binds the community under the name of God, and saving our souls from Ice.  I admire this.  But, what I question is why the show doesn't show us what is really going on.  They do this because they get paid.  They aren't a non-profit organization, they make a LOT of money. They have really nice stuff. This keeps them going. This isn't a rescue operation, this is 4 pumped up wrestlers with mace and body armor and trucks chasing someone down for ching... oh and then let's add this layer of, "Gee we care so much about you guys... we love you crackheads... 'cause, umm, God loves you and we love God. Peace out!"

If only we all could have the morals of the Chapman clan. This episode I'm seeing now, shows a woman being "arrested" for failing to report to their PO.  This found her in the back seat being lectured by Mrs Chapman about drinking at 3pm on a Thursday and she had some kids or something.  So you're not supposed to be drinking if you have kids.  Yeah. Gotcha.  Thanks Beth, you are so wise. Thank god you broke into this womans house, dragged her out in front of all the neighbors and cameras and traffic passing by, so that you could tell her to not drink at 3pm when her kids are coming home. I'm certain this will make her drink more - later.  Embarrasment, guilting and goading usually doesn't turn a body from alcohol, it turns them to drinking ALONE.

I'm probably just being bitter, because I believe in self-rehabilitation and liberty.  Ironically the photo of GW Bush next to the Chapman office PC would indicate they share this belief. Which is just another incredible dichotomy,  because the Chapmans are quite possibly the most liberal people I have ever seen.  Just now, Duane Lee(oh and everyone has two first names) is talking about how the "American Indian was poisoned with alcohol by the White Man so the White Man could kick their asses easier", whether not this is historically accurate, matters not, the point is, it is an incredibly BLEEDING HEART liberal thing to say on national American television. Damn.

I do believe Duane believes in his own BS. I do believe they want these people to be rehabilitated.  I do think they are doing good things for Hawaii and their followers and I have no doubt that some of their fugitives have turned around, or at the very least thought harder about it, after the public humiliation and subsequent lectures they receive.  But as we all know, it get's harder to care about others when you're broke.  Which also screams my point of how liberal this "red neck" show is.  When everybody does better - everybody does better. That's about as socialist as it gets.

So maybe this is why I have yet to turn the channel.  The fact that the Chapmans are definitely conservative, religious right wing, red state republicans that practice and impose incredibly liberal values of "The Man", govt, police and police-like organizations SAVING the greater public of Hawaii. The state will save you, if you want to be saved, and the state will use tax payer money to do it.  So much for being anti-Tax-and-Spend-Democrat. Evil Democrats!  

Then add the element that the Chapmans used to be like the criminals they arrest. They save these people because no one saved them, yet somehow we are left to wonder if someone had saved them would they then have turned into the Christ-like soldiers of anti-drug, anti-substance other than cigarettes and caffiene?  Hard to say, but one thing is for certain, I keep watching because I feel the show speaks volumes towards how most people in this world feel.  Confused about their past, enamored with their future, and trying to do what is good today so tomorrow might be better.

I have just discovered I forgot a book of matches in my backpack that I brought with me to Florida.  I got the matches in Florida. I put them in my bag and went through security, with matches in my bag, marking the 3rd time this year I have had either matches or a lighter in my carry on that I carried on to the plane without airport security noticing. I am not the only one with this experience.

Purely unintentional. Because there are few things worse than having a group of airport hot head security roll arounds breathing down your ass cause you didn't take your belt off, so I'm usually fairly conscientous when prepping for the hurry up and wait that is protecting our country from those that want to harm us(because no one in our country wants to harm us).

Well, at least they scanned my shoes.