On With The Show

What an insane week. Still recovering after the insane show I went to Saturday, but we'll get back to that later. I taught Mia how to make a very basic tattoo stencil early this week, so she was tattooing herself as well as my in-laws. Silly kiddo. Tuesday, she had her very first bass guitar lesson. She was super excited. The morning of the lesson, she was pretty cranky and self-defeated about things so when I went to work, I was nervous she'd go to her lesson hating it. Luckily, I was wrong. Jill texted me that Mia had the BEST time and really likes her instructor. She learned quite a bit for her first day including technique and how to play with fingers. I was totally impressed when I got home from work when she showed me what she had learned. Well done kiddo! Since then, she's been practicing daily.

I had a great lesson Thursday with Micah and Gigi. This week, they re-created my infamous watermelon sketch and learned how to make colors pop on toned paper. Specifically, using white to blend and layer with the red to get that watermelon look. It took Gigi a couple tries to get it, but eventually she was okay with her final result. I really liked it but she wasn't digging it. I still have to work on her self-confidence. Her sister Micah NAILED the sketch. Totally proud. Really made the colors pop. I've got a week off from art lessons and next week I'll have a group lesson. It'll be intense and fun. It will also be a new challenge working with kids of similar skill level so I need to come up with a great lesson piece.

Saturday, I did some yard work, we ran to Trader's for groceries and later, my parents stopped over with their new puppy Simon. Such a cute dog! A bit later,  I drove to Cudahy for Dummerfest 2019. It was my first time going to this festival at this little arcade bar, but if they bring bands like The Lawrence Arms again in the future, I'll totally be back. The overall feel of this place was like a punk rock BBQ. Kids running around with over-sized band shirts, burgers/veggie burgers/brats for sale and plenty of beer. I rarely go to concerts anymore but tempt me with one of my all-time favorite band The Lawrence Arms and there is no way I'm missing it. I first saw them perform back in 2002 at the Plea for Peace show with a bunch of great acts. While waiting for my good buddy Jon to meet up with me, I watched some of the other 11 different acts that were performing throughout the day including Minneapolis's The Punchlines. Every song was a groan-worthy painfully funny joke. The singer would tell the joke, the crowd would laugh and they would start the song singing the joke. Really liked them. While watching a band inside, I ran into Brendan Kelly of TLA and he gave me a hug. He remembered me from a few years ago when he stopped in Madison with his side project, The Falcon.

Later outside, I told him how my daughter Mia just started playing bass and recently got into TLA. He was gracious enough to record a personal message to her giving her advice on learning how to play bass. Such an incredibly nice guy. Every time I've met him, he's the most down-to-earth guy and I hope when they release their new album, they tour and come around again. Mia really wanted a t-shirt from the show but when I showed her the video message this morning, she was beaming with a big smile from ear to ear. 

After her recorded the message, I ran into Chris, the other singer. I was really hoping I'd be lucky enough to talk to him. He was super friendly and we got to chat a while outside after a quick picture. Both guys signed an album for me as well. Wish I would have taken a better picture of myself with him, but oh well. I sadly didn't get to talk to Neil, their drummer. He was a bit elusive and was always in a conversation with someone or just not around. I met him several years ago when he toured with the Smoking Popes. 

Later, Jon finally arrived and we played a few arcade games before Direct Hit went on. Lippies played before them and they weren't too bad. Crowd really liked them as well. Direct Hit is a local group from Milwaukee and they were pretty solid. During sound check, the guitar player broke his string. After he replaced it, he broke it again. Talk about luck. When you're an up-and-coming band, you don't tour with multiple guitars so he just dealt with it and played  sans string.  

Finally, it was Lawrence Arms time. After a lengthy sound check, they finally took the stage with the Laverne and Shirley theme blasting through the speakers. It was an insanely amazing set with the crowd going off to every song. Set list was as follows in no particular order:
Slowest Drink
Devil's Takin Names
Great Lakes
Like a Record Player
You Are Here
Seventeener
Acheron River
Beautiful Things (encore)
Cut it up
Recovering The Opposable Thumb
Margaret
100 Resolutions
Brickwall Views
Intransit
Drunk Mouth/Kitchen Smile
The Revisionist
On With The Show
Alert The Audience!
Chapter 13: The Hero Appears
 Ramblin' Boys of Pleasure

 I hope I'm not missing anything. It was an awesome night. I still can't believe it happened. TLA played in a weird town to hundreds of people in a packed arcade and it couldn't have been a better night. If they would have played my favorite song "Turnstyles" it would have been magical. Alas, they didn't but it didn't matter. I was lucky to give one more "thank you" to Chris after the show before heading out. We had a blast and  it will go down as one of my all-time favorite shows. One of the best things about being a part of the punk community both as a musician and fan, is that some of the really amazing acts play little hole in the wall places or intimate venues that give you access to meeting band members. You feel this connection when the band is a foot or two in front of you. You don't get that hundreds of feet watching a screen in an arena. There are no pits or stage diving. For me personally, I wanna be right up there with the fans. The ones sweating, singing and feeling every note and lyric. It's a magical experience that took me back to my youth. The drive home was ridiculous after Jon and I said our goodbyes. Just thinking about the night and how lucky I truly am to have discovered this band so long ago. I was so excited the next morning to talk to Mia about it, show her the video and give her a button I was given from the tour manager. I couldn't snag a set list but that's all good. I brought a TLA shirt themed for the Milwaukee stint with a cheese head and Chicago sausage. The tour manager said it was stupid but the fans all bought them. Today, I painfully am recovering and remembering that my age. Voice took a bit to come back but eventually it did at work. This week, Mia's got bass lessons, hang with some old friends and a vet visit for Remi. Jill's birthday is this week so we're taking her out for dinner. That's all for now, thanks for reading!!

The Road to Recovery

Good morning everyone. It's been an interesting few days, but I'll get to that in a bit. With Saturday and Sunday off, I had high hopes of a delightful and productive weekend with my two girls. Saturday morning I watched the 2nd half of the Chelsea FC game (because my NBCSports app wasn't working properly) Hazard secured his first hat trick, and a 3-0 win for the mighty Blues. That kid is incredible. Anyways, so that started the morning on a positive note. We went to the party store to get about 14 balloons (because its 2014) and went to go photograph Mia for her three-year photograph at the same location we did last year. Didn't work out at all. She was too cold and crabby to participate in this picture. FANTASTIC. Well, later we got some food in her (she may have been hungry) and we were able to shoot the photo in our backyard. Throughout the evening, I wasn't feeling the best. My stomach was hurting and I wasn't completely sure why. I had figured it was food related, but wasn't positive. We went off to bed earlier then usual, but I couldn't sleep.

I was laying there, clutching my stomach. Later, got up and threw up. Felt absolutely horrible. I was convinced the turkey meat in my pasta was bad. Went back to bed, still hurting. Heard Jill roaming around downstairs and met her in the hallway. Right after I told her what happened, I blacked out. She got my semi-conscious and told me I was out, then I guess I blacked out..again. This time when I came to, I could hear her crying "whats WRONG?? why is this happening??" THEN I blacked out AGAIN. Came to again, and she was just hysterically crying "do I call 911??" NO I'm fine, don't worry. She got my crackers and juice and I sat there in bed feeling like complete crap. My limbs and legs just couldn't hold body up. I had no food in my system and the blood sugar was dangerously low.

About 4am, Mia threw up. WONDERFUL. I was now convinced Mia and I picked something up from Play Group. Someone had to have been sick and shared it with us. So Sunday, we sat around all day. Jill took good care of us and it was just a delightful weekend. I've been on the slow road to recovery. Today, feeling pretty good. At work the last two days, I wasn't feeling the best. Stomach still hurting. Mia hasn't been wanting to eat much. She threw up Monday and Tuesday night. Wednesday night, finally didn't throw up. I was also able to get her to eat something last night too. Jill came home not feeling the best so I did my best effort to keep the kiddo with me so she could get some rest. Not 100% sure what the plan is for the weekend, but we'll see when we get there

Quick review of Metropole by The Lawrence Arms. Solid album. These guys never write "singles" or "hits". Songs just become the fan favorites over the last 10 years. This album just grows more and more on you, the more you listen. Some of my favorite tracks are "You Are Here" and "Beautiful Things". Lyrics are great. It's not as gritty as Oh! Calcutta which was their last album release 8 years ago. It's a bright, clever and well-writtened album that will be an instant classic. Hope they can make it to Milwaukee sometime.


Okay that's it for now, thanks for reading.

Juice boxes and fruit snacks

Hello! Gonna try to make this quick. I've got to wake up Jill for her daily morning work out before 7am. That's our new routine in the morning. I get up 6ish, walk the dog, come home, eat breakfast and then wake her up so she can work out. It seems to be working, but I'm getting more exhausted by the end of the day. Over the weekend, Jill, my Mom, my sister in law and the kid went to this big pet expo. Myself, my older bro and Dad hung out at home watching the Chelsea Fc 2011/2012 highlights. It was especially nice to relive the moments of when we took the Champions League cup. Almost goosebumps watching Drogba take that last penalty kick :) Tuesday, I took Mia to her friends house. FIRST TIME hanging out at a friend's house and she's 2 1/2 ! awesome. Can't believe how old she's getting. Hanging out with friends, soon school...Time is just flying.
So we went to hang out with Hannah, this little boy Aiden and Hannah's mom. Gracie, Hannah's sister (and Mia's other friend) had to go to preschool so she didn't get to play with the kids. Mia had a blast. Except the part where they walked upstairs to play dress up and Hannah yelled down 'Can Mia get naked?" and Mia interupts with  "I DONT WANNA GET NAKED!" I assume Hannah tried to take her hoody off or something. All in all, it was a fun experience and I look forward to play group Friday (as always) when we'll see them again.

Yesterday when I got home with the sleeping kid, I did some research on anamorphic drawings, which is basically, creating a piece that if you center it a certain way on the camera, looks 3D or floating. I would like to try and figure this thing out some day. Looks very cool, but highly technical.

So I posted last week that I'd give a proper review of the brand new Lawrence Arms record, Metropole. Give me another week. I listened through the whole thing once. I want another so I can give you a solid 100% on this thing. It's really good. Hang tight.

This weekend, we're supposed to go to Illinois to visit Jill's familia, but since they've been getting pounded by tons of snow (and probably will Saturday, as it is forecasted) we may stay home. It'll be weird having two days off and nothing major planned. I think we discussed catching up on laundry and taking Mia's 3-year photo. We did one last year when she was turning 2, photographed outside in the snow holding up red balloons. She was so pissed that day, but the photo turned out really nice and sweet.

Okay, that's gonna do it for now, thanks for reading.