MC Chris Owns

If you don't know, MC Chris has been out on tour. You need to go see MC CHRIS. He is probably best known for the MC Pee Pants character on Aqua Teen Hunger Force, as well as voicing the character of Hesh on Sealab 2021. His 'Revenge of the Nerd' tour has been going strong across the country and has quite a few more dates to go. Go to MCChris' page to hear his tunes also see Audra's MCChris Page for sound clips and more. I really enjoyed the show. Opening up for him were The Ergs
and SNMNMNM. Ergs were good, but I really enjoyed the unexpected combo of tuba, accordian, keyboard, trumpet, guitar and drums from SNMNMNM. Nice stuff indeed.

Well, I just had to. That's why.

So, here as promised is the full Joseph Newman page of the Proof Of God. missing pics, most of them were scanned press releases of this madman. And ahh. what the hay, here's some more loop ready audio from the tapes of neverending goodness... The levels are low...
amyz loop
anitgrav loop
antigravwalkdown loop
neverfill loop
witchcraft backbeat loop

Heck, even take a gander at some free place holder stuff (former obfurrscating website)

Joseph Newman really knows his stuff. It's part of the effect I experienced living on the edge in southern Mississippi for so many years. It's a weird thing that happens when there is nothing to do, nothing going on, nothing to be influenced by, nothing to impress, nothing to share, nothing to worry about. It's almost as if the remoteness of the DEEP south allows for a certain form of creativity to develop. When you feel the need to create something, and no real, actual desire for people to see/hear/feel/experience it, and no expectation of that, you naturally create a true form of something. I know W.Andersen and G.Ohr both appreciated the remoteness of their creativity in southern Mississippi, and I'm sure mr. Newman feel the same. I got that feeling many times creating music in southern mississippi, it's like a folk art that burns quickly, only to be appreciated at that instant, only for those in attendance with no other records of it's existence other than faint fuzzy memories. Of course this happens everywhere, but there is a certain something doing it in the DEEP south that makes it more legit somehow. Sure, it's easy to be a big fish in a small pond, but when many of the fish have legs and wiggly tails, you quickly find out once you are out of your pond, that there are thousands of ponds just like yours, you feel insignificant again. What then? Three legs? Four? how about some plumage? I just take some pride in getting to experience life at such a slow pace. And by slow, I don't mean backwards, just real slow. Like, where notice the sidewalk bulging upward from the steady growth of tree roots over a period of years. Lotsa people live life real fast and never see that.

Amazing Energy Ringtones

A few years ago, I was making music with the Scott Panther back in the 'burg. We had came across the most fantastic and inspiring rant by Joseph Newman, the perpetual energy man of Wiggins, MS. This rant had many awesome references to god, the #14, physics, and life in general. I saved that webpage and will post it later. I promise, you will be inspired by it as well. So anyway, we took on the name of Amazing Energy (or Amazing Energy Machine). We embarked on a series of musical (or non-musical) experiments that resulted in miles of tape filled with lots of electronic wish-wash. I have taken some snippets from these tapes and converted them to handy ringtones. These AMR ringtones work on newer Nokia phones, and who doesn't have one of those these days? I've also put up regular audio files so you can hear them. I'll guarantee these ringtones will make people look at you and your phone and give you a WTF? Also, you will know it's your phone ringing and not just some robot making phone noises.

Get This Saucer Going.amr
Get This Saucer Going.mp3

Vakuum Energ.amr
Vakuum Energ.wav

Walking Tolerance.amr
Walking Tolerance.wav

also, see authentic existence

instead of a cat pictures (lord knows there is enough kitty on the net) , that's a pic of my poppy dog.

More old pix

Here we have my good friend, Scott Panther at a birthday party that was 'dressy'. I wish I still had that poster. We were drinking fancy drinks all night.


And here we have The Stumpgrinders. I think this may have been their first show. We were at The Cooter's Estate in Oxford, MS one halloween many many years ago. You must go and take a gaze at the totally wicked wall of flyers they have .
Take a close look at the first several flyers, there are lots of Hattiesburg bands from wayyy back in the day. Atomic Jefferson, Before I Hang are just some of them...


The Stumpgrinders pictured here are: Duffy Chase, Stoo Odom, (stoo's radio show) and Jay Mueller.
I did find an unusual reference from some CA college board: "

Stoo is still pretending to sing for the
"Stumpgrinders' Saturday Morning Otterpop and Boobies Review" (10 am
Saturday, Hattiesburg Mississippi local access, after Bill the Klansman's
"Man Must Not Mate with Ape Makeover Showcase").  Stoo has always known
"
that fucking was not the same as mating.

209 Chevy Chase Drive Hattiesburg

We all used to hang out and live quite heartily back on Chevy Chase. I lived there for many years, it was very colorful. It was an enclave of friends that always welcomed all.

This is the view from the back steps of 209 C Chevy Chase Drive in Hattiesburg, MS. Circa 1992 or 1993. There was this wonderful bench very private and hidden behind the house. Spent much time on that bench. Now the whole area there has been plowed under to make way for nothing important.



Even in flames, Chevy Chase is still colorful. (hattiesburg american pic)

Radio radio in Denver

I've got to share some of my radio joy with you at this point. This morning I heard Blues Traveler on 99.5 The Mountain here in Denver. It brought back an amusing memory. Let's go back to 1992. The H.O.R.D.E. fest was in it's first year of existence. This free wheelin' jam band super tour was at the Oak Mountian Ampitheater ( a super place, btw). The drive from Hattiesburg was about 5 hours, so I had reserved a room at the only hotel there at that time. We got there early and checked in to the room which was on the first floor right near the lobby. We started partying then walked over to the ampitheater. During the course of the day, we met up with several carloads of folks from Hattiesburg. We partied more, enjoyed the bands. After the show was over, we all walked back to the hotel which was completely booked. Crashing in our room was was Steve Porcari, Gundo, Trey Rhul, Dalton Alley, Kevin, Jennifer, and some others I think. It's kinda hazy. So, we get into the lobby and it's got a bunch of people in it. We follow a group of guys to the rooms. We realized this group of guys was the Spin Doctors and some of Blues Traveler. We got to our door, and they were in the room right across from us. We were all laughing at everything saying hello to these guys when Jennifer smiles real big and asks them "Did you guys go to the show?" It was a moment of pure magic. They were kinda speechless, as were we. I think I said, 'these guys were the show'. We all dove into our room dying with laughter. Jennifer just shrugged and said, "Well, they looked like cool guys".

So, other radio stuff, Here in Denver, my radio listening of late has been mostly Latino. With a broken antenna, it's what my truck picks up best. I'm learning spanish via the radio. So I've got: Super Estrella 92.1 - top latin pop hits : Mega 95.7 Latino and Proud - loud latin dance stuff and spanish rap and remixes : and 96.5 Radio Tricolor - more traditional latino stuff.
then I listen to 106.7 KBPI for my hard rock fix. And of course 97.3 KBCO
and 99.5 The Mountain

I gotta fix my tape player.

too much to see.

When I'm bored and needing entertainment, I frequently goto Google Video
and let it serve me pages of random video clips. It's like being an instant voyeur. Never tiring...

Early October Snow

So, Monday, we got about a foot of heavy, wet snow. I had to go out for a solid hour of knocking the snow out of the trees so they didn't break that morning. The city says about 60% of the trees in town were heavily damaged. Leaves still on the trees acted as little snow catchers. It snowed all day Monday. It's going to be over 70 degrees this Friday. That's Colorado. Here's a super pic of my son and our immigrant snowman. He ad some help making it. Driving home last night, I put my Integra into a ditch. Too fast, little icy/gravel patch, and whoosh, there went my back end. Pow. Crunched up the nose of my car (again). I guess I will havta put it back on with more cable ties and cut off the extra bits of plastic hanging out from under my car. My wife did tell me I shoulda driven my 4runner yesterday. Oh well.  

men at work

Nikola Tesla pondered about his tasks alot. He got alot done. We will never know the full extent of his work. From the latest possible HAARP
stuff to the smartest remote vehicles in the desert, who knows?
That is just what we see on the surface.

Excellent Space Station Watching Weather

I stepped outside this morning for a super treat. I got to see the International Space Station pass overhead. A long path, took about 5 min to go across. Brighter than Venus in the west, fading as it went east. Way cool. It will be so neat when we finally have data glasses so that we can look up in the sky and see objects with labels. The sight of a single point of light moving in a straight line across the sky for minutes surely could be taken as a sign from god, or a as a god itself. A man-made god orbiting high above the earth. The most satellites I've seen at once is 5 one clear early evening in Hattiesburg, MS. We tought they were going to crash into each other!
Today is a panic day, so is the next 7 days or so... My big project is going live this Sunday. Not just for one city, but for 7 major metropolitan areas. So, my baby hasn't left me, but I've got a new place to dwell. It's in the Network Operations Center for the new DirecTV HD system. Not too bad, I've got over 1000 channels for my eyeballs to dwell upon. I may try to escape early today and hunt a geocache.

Van Morrison, the working man's hero

If you didn't know already, Van Morrison started on Bang records. He signed a contract for so many albums. He wanted out, so he fulfilled his contract. There was nothing in the contract that said the songs had to be marketable. He made two albums in mostly one sitting, jangling and muttering as the tape rolled. WFMU has this page of these two albums.
Please to yourself a favor and at least listen to 'Want A Danish'
'Ring Worm' and maybe 'Chicken Coo'

Van screwed the man good.

Confirmative

My new word for the day.
Confirmative

Here's where I'm at today.

I used to be a rock and roller. Now I'm an engineer and a husband, and a father, and a homeowner. Not a rock & roller no mo. It's still in me, but the time and drive for those things has diminished. I currently am living in Castle Rock, CO, 20 mi. south of Denver, named for a prominent geological feature you can see from my backyard. It's a fine little place, formerly population of 20k or so, it is now undergoing the population explosion routine at maximum speed. More on that later. Back only a couple of years ago, I was stuck in the rut of Hattiesburg, MS. I met a wonderful woman who wanted the same things I did, so we got the heck outta there. We are now happily married. She is an art teacher for the local school district. We have a little baby named Ryan Parker Smith. He is 11 months old, starting to walk, and gabble words. He's gonna be quite a man one day.

Just like most of the best things in my life, A wonderful job has found me. Luck? Ya, I eat it for breakfast every day. I am involved in corporate-top-secret stuff. I hang out with nearly a billion dollars worth of high tech stuff everyday. I work on the software that monitors and controls all of it.
There's more, you just can't see the small ones from this far away...

See this pic? Take it and multiply it by 8. It's an incredible sensation to stand in front of something like that. Elvis would have quit playing music with a setup like this. I'm working on getting HD signals from local stations around the country and delivering them digitally to your home. It's huge. Rethink TV. really.

I can't divulge any juicy info, or revealing pics. I love my job.

Gotta catch em all

And I could not leave out my friends who I have kept some form of contact with:

Hattiesblog - purveyor of the DeadManDancing website, host of Hattiesburg musings and music.
Barebones, baby!

The South Mississippi Music Sampler - Fine live recordings from the birthplace of blues and rock and roll.

Must share.

So, there are a few places I frequent. So much that I can't get enough.
MusicThing - absolutley the best thing one the web right now.
Meats Meier - doing things the right way.
John C. Dvorak - Good insights from a guy who has been doing it for a long time.
- when John Stewart becomes preisedent, I want this guy for V.P.
Government Liquidators - Because the govt. has too much stuff
We Get Buck - What's better than slangin drugs and poppin caps?
- also see: KrumpArena - you gotta check out the hot demo videos. 4 real.
CD Baby - they have some of the most unheard of music to sample. check out
Leoncie there. Inspirational stuff.

So, now that's off my chest, I can get on with it.

This is the place from the beginning has gone.

So, I'm finally getting one of these going. I hope it finds some interesting reads and looks.
I'm going to share some of my favorite finds and pastimes with you. Observations too.