Last Thursday, Christine and I took the family on a "mini-vacation." I've documented this momentous event on my website.
MINI-VACATION: <http://www.fozzilinymoo.org/events/2006-JulyMiniVacation>
July 2006 Archives
Clarity is here.
You can purchase your copy of Clarity online CD Baby. You can also listen to horrible-quality streaming MP3 versions of the tracks there too.
Oh wait, I almost forgot. You can hear me on track 9: Juneau. I performed some spoken word for that song.
Most of the CD is family friendly, but not all. Avoid track 10 if you're easily offended by profanity. Tim was really pissed about something, I guess. I had nothing to do with it.
More information about the CD and the band is available at www.sonsofnothing.com.
You may also hold your breath until Saturday, August 12. On that evening, Sons Of Nothing will be hosting a CD release party for Clarity at Salt Lake's prestigious new music venue, The Depot. (the old Union Pacific train station at the Gateway Plaza). In addition to playing musical selections from the new CD, the band will also perform a set of their acclaimed FloydShow tribute to Pink Floyd.
The band will be joined by legendary local saxo-flutist John Flanders so the music will be, in a word, awesome.
Lots of news from my world.
Extraction
At the moment, I'm sitting in the parents' waiting room at Primary Childrens Hospital in Salt Lake City. Our son, Eli, who will be three years old next month, had his tonsils and adenoids removed this morning. They were huge and he was having difficulty breathing and eating food that wasn't soft.
The doctor came back about 30 minutes ago and said everything went well. So, now I'm just waiting to be called back into the recovery area. Christine's already back there -- they only allow one parent back at first.
Pink Floyd News
I've got a bunch of Pink Floyd news...
Syd Barrett dies
Original bandleader of Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett, has died. More news is over here. It's nice to see the band continues to pay tribute and respect to the guy.
Pink Floyd Pulse finally out on DVD!
The last PF studio album -- The Division Bell -- was released in 1994 and was followed by a worldwide tour of the band. In 1995, the band released a live album from the tour titled "Pulse." In addition to CDs, Pulse was also released on VHS and laserdisc. It would be twelve more years before Pulse was available on DVD. Today, it is available for purchase.
I got my copy last night. I pre-ordered it about six months ago and Buy.com got it to me a day early.
I was so excited to watch it. I've had it on VHS for a long time, but the sound and video quality is SO much better than the VHS, plus there are lots of extras. The sound was remastered for 5.1 surround sound and is available as a 640 kbps stream for even-better-than-usual DVD audio quality if your DVD player supports it (mine does).
Over four hours of Pink Floyd goodness including 145 minutes of actual concert footage.
You can get your copy from Amazon.com.
North By Northwest
This last weekend, Sons Of Nothing presented out FloydShow tribute to Pink Floyd in Spokane, Washington and Longview, Washington.
It was our first time in Spokane and the first time we were booked by a talent agency called Bravo Entertainment, so we were on our best behavior. The show was at The Big Easy Concert House and it rocked!
Erik Young, the lighting engineer at The Big Easy, programmed an excellent show that worked exceptionally well with the music. Kudos to him. He also worked with me to get our video running to all the TVs in the house as well as the two projector screens to each side of the stage in addition to ours behind the stage.
FloydShow in Spokane
We're looking forward to heading back to Spokane, maybe in October or November.
Saturday night, we played in Longview, WA which is about 30 minutes north of Portland. We played at the Cadillac Island Casino two years ago (when it was the Cadillac Ranch Casino), so we already had experience working with the management. The show went off well. My only complaint was that they didn't really prepare any lighting for the show and, as a result, the lighting presets used were a bit silly - being either too much or not enough for the music being played. The crowd seemed to dig it nonetheless.
The family and I went to the Riverton Town Days parade last night (3 July). It seemed longer this year, but that could only be my perception because the parade in Ephraim over Memorial Day weekend was so much shorter (which was nice).
The weather was perfect for the parade with slightly overcast skies and a gentle breeze. The kids snatched up lots of candy and other goodies from parade participants.
Incumbent U.S. senator Orrin Hatch was in the parade. This is the first time I've seen him show up in public at a parade. His campaign was handing out cardboard placards which seemed to be useful for fanning one's self. We declined them as they went by handing them out. Hatch's vehicle was one of the first in the parade and we weren't hot yet.
Later on, though, democratic senatorial candidate Pete Ashdown and his band of geeks (campaign volunteers) came strutting down Redwood Road followed by the infamous Blue Eagle. Could Pete and his volunteers do better than Hatch with their limited campaign budget and grassroots strategy?
You betcha!
Pete won the hearts and stomachs of many in Riverton by giving out delicous Creamie ice cream treats.
Pete and I don't see eye to eye on all the issues, but still I wish him the best of luck in his campaign to unseat Hatch, who does not represent me or my colleagues.
