Home Owners Insurance

I started to talk about this about 10 years ago about pex tubing and the problems that will be coming. Insurance companies need to be more involved in building materials used to build homes and commercial properties. Any involved in auto parts will confirm that the quality of parts made in China have an unreliable performance compared to quality, more expensive parts. Personally I have moved away from brands I have never heard of or can not find info on and stick with name brand manufactures. Pex tubing made in China is now starting to split and loose its seal and insurance companies are paying the price. For some reason many trade companies will buy what ever is the cheapest to "save a few bucks." This attitude is costing Insurance companies millions. The pex tubing that was installed 10-15 years ago is starting to fall apart inside walls. Water damage is the worst especially if your not home and it has time to form streams through out your house. Copper tubing would last some 100 years in comparison. Insurance companies should start classifying homes based upon quality of build. List can be as simple a A, B, C. With well built homes being classified as A build quality. The cost to insure this home should significantly be lower to offset the increase in cost of materials. Meaning it needs to be worth doing. The pay back should be within 5 or at the most 7 years. It is in the best interest to insurance companies long term profit to do this. The better the property is built, the less likely damage will will happen due to junk building material such as pex. This could be an example of most building products. Windows come to mind, there are junk windows that will start to leak from day one not only from quality of the window being installed but also the craftsmanship of the installation. I could not tell you the amount of time corners are cut in the name of "saving a few bucks" at the future cost of insurance companies. These classification could also be extended to companies. Some companies just flat out don't care about quality and are bidding jobs as the low bidder with out concern about material being used, as long as it makes the 1 year warranty mark. This will never happen on its own and will only happen if Insurance organizations get to together and start doing it on its own. This is done now with worker compensation. As companies are rated on safety based on based on the amount of claims. If there are a lot of claims or IE hospital visits, the companies is clearly not following safety precautions. There is no guess work and over a short period of time the insurance company can put companies out of business who are not safe in work habits. They put them out of business due to cost to insure the company and it does not matter which company you go to, it is all linked like auto insurance. I'm a fan of this because I personally take pride in my work which takes a bit more time but far exceeds expectations. I don't fit in all companies because some companies just don't care because it cost more to do so. Until insurance companies work out a scheduled quality of build grade it is going to continue to cost them money and more so in the future because quality of products sold is ever decreasing and will continue to decrease. This plan will benefit American made products that understand quality of components and also supports the trades. It just a win for most.

Guitar dreams

I'm thinking my life will be complete when I'm able to acquirer a (white) Fender Jaguar,Gibson Les Paul (goldtop),Gibson Les Paul (honeyburst), Gibson SG (any color), Schecter hellraiser FR (black cherry) and some EAW monitors

Stevie

Look it, I lost your number and I'm getting a head ache. I've got an idea that is industry related. That side job at the candy factory will be zero in revenue in comparison. Your friend in Pelham will need to help. You have the connections I have the idea. Bring Mr Hennessey if he's around.There are other industries interested also including the Commander. Dude no joke, I'm being shaking down, mad a mistake and displayed at school. Besides I hear you have a good spot for trout fishing...later Dess

Small Dogs

Small dogs are all the rage ....I wonder why?

Revere Beach 1997

The mother of my daughters decided she would rather drink Captain Morgan spiced rum than maintain a marriage so out the door I went. I left with exactly I came into it with, 2 trash bags of dirty laundry, a car and a 702-credit score. Most if not all people who get divorced know that the divorce is coming, it's just a matter of the best exit time. Mine was plain difficult because of my daughters and the whole thing was devastating. I will spare you the details of it all only to address younger people who think a parent is walking away from them. That's not the case in a majority but in a small percentage it is. I tried for several years after the separation to make things work, not because I wanted her back it is because I wanted to be with my girls.
On occasion and becoming more and more frequent I would take rides with my daughter Nicole out to Revere Beach and hang out seaside while walking up and down the boulevard. Nicole needed more attention than the average child or in my case her twin sisters who are 1 year behind her, so it was like having 3 at once. I would get calls from her mom, "come pick up your daughter. "Entering the apartment, the both of them would whimpering and Nicole would come running with her arms up for me to pick her up, which I would. "Please get her out of here." My big secrete with being able to handle her was taking her walks in a carriage and going for drives in a car. She was a car sleeper or motion sleeper, better put. As soon as you dropped her in a car seat or rocker, she was out cold. Many times, she would fight sleeping all together and become over tired and couldn't sleep in a crib and the only way she would sleep would be go for drives or walks. Today I still get texts at 3 am from her as she fights going to sleep, "hay Dad...what ya doing." Jaclyn will pick up a conversation at 2:30 am were she left off at 4 in the afternoon, texting.
After tormenting her mother, she would be prime for a good nap. She was 2 and everything you heard about terrible 2's is true. It's a brute period that requires a lot of patients, which her didn't have. Another big secrete I had is all 3 would nap at the same time. If 1 wanted to nap earlier than the others I would keep her up until all were ready. When they took a nap so didn't I. As simple as that sounds many people don't do it. If you have one kid your out of topic here. That's a 2 or more thing. (Being able to handle my kids bothered Lee on some sort of personal level). I would also wake them up in the middle of the night when Nicole wanted a bottle. The other two likely would sleep through most of the night but not with Nicole. When she got up, I got all of them up and all got bottles at once. She would wake up every 2 hours. I didn't sleep right for over a year. There are 4 thing a child wants: 1. food 2. attention 3. their diaper changed or 4. remove gas from their bellies. If you try all 4 and if it doesn't work, she's probably sick or has an earache and you will spend a better part of the day holding them. Those were some of my big secretes.
There is old school way of thinking that women are the only parents that can care for children. This is an old way of thinking and today's society doesn't want any more. If you think in these terms you need to understand why younger people look at you with a blank stare when you talk to them. You're not wanted any more old man and your old ways are not valued. My first wife had some sort of resentment towards me because I was able to handle the stress of having kids. She felt she was a woman and it was her divine right to care for kids, the problem was she couldn't handle it. I know many of young dudes today who are completely involved and able to handle taking care of kids more so than the women they are with. Many old school women will at first get pissed reading this but it just a fact.
The recent attack in France is an extreme example of what I'm talking about. These religious fanatics don't like change and advancement of society. It is also why they don't like education because when you educate people they start to question and have open discuss on topics which is an advancement because the wrong whys of thinking are weeded out. Heavy metal and coffee shops represents the new generation, they represent change in their world, this is why they chose these places as targets. Heavy metal because it is new music to them. Coffee shops are where people talk openly about things and meet. I hope you follow me on that. I going to cut the talk short on this subject because it starts to get a bit deep, but I believe you can follow what I'm saying with those points, and it is important for you to think about it and evolve your own thoughts. It tends to stick better rather than just reading someone else views, gut it?
Back to Revere Beach. While traveling with Nicole I had my eye on place call "The Cove."They had one of those cheap hardware store signs out front that said, "room for rent." The good part was they were located 1/2 a block from the beach. Location, location, location. The beach is filled with night clubs, pizza joints and fast food take out. Is very active with both young and old, age is no issue. If you can afford to live in Massachusetts and looking for a town with action head for Revere Beach. I say afford because Massachusetts has become what New York is. New York has priced the working class out of the city. New York New York rentals are grossly overpriced, and Massachusetts is not far behind. If your working-class person and looking for an affordable place to live not far from your family, try New Hampshire. You work an average job and afford to live at the same time. An $800 apartment in NH is about $1300 in MA. Today NH is expanding at a rapid rate if you're in the trades. A trend I have noticed is: during the 50 and 60's Boston was expanding, during the 70's 80's inside the route 128 belt was expanding, the 90's it was inside the 495 belt and today it is in New Hampshire. The commercial market is just starting. There is still plenty of room which keeps sale prices lower. In the town I went to High school, Lexington MA, they are tearing down ranch houses to build bigger houses with much bigger prices (there's no land to expand on).
I walked into the Cove to inquire about the room for rent. The Cove was a dimly lite night club that your shoes would stick to the floor as you walked from old, spilled beer. A DJ station that was several feet up from the ground floor overlooking people that was boxed in from view from people below. Rocking Rick manned the DJ station most nights. Carmella, the bar tender said "ya there are 2 open." The rooms were located above the night club which made things convenient. I chose a room that was near the fire escape because it was set apart from the other rooms which I thought would be quieter. It wasn't the music from the DJ would bounce off the rear of the building which I was above and made a rumble that kept me up most nights until midnight when they would start to cool the place off for the night. On a couple of occasions, I chatted with Rocking Rick on why he had the music so loud on Monday nights, pointing out that there is no one in the joint. "Dess, the owner/manager wants me to maintain a certain atmosphere in the club each and every night whether or not there are people in attendance." The cost of the room was $110 per week which at the time was about $10 more than the going rate but the location you couldn't beat. I didn't have to drive to head out for the night and a walk down the beach was all that was needed. Generally, I would prime up at the Cove and then head out. The Cove was filled with a mixture of characters. Rock and Rollers, bikers, motorcycle club members, construction workers, locals and lots and lots of party girls. One of the first person I would hook up with was a dude who went by the name of Mike Mass. He was in tune with the Metal scene and was in the business of having women pay his rent. He showed me around the beach and showed me who was who. Our regular spot became a place called "The Tank" and the Metal scene that was starting to take root. The Tank was a half decent club with a capacity of about 500. Fairly large for local music. Today the club is called H2O. Managed by Chris who was always tolerant and inviting mainly because Mike did most of the promoting for the club. It was 1997 and promoting meant cold calling people to get them to show there was no internet and social networking as we know it today, the internet was around but not everyday use. Mike was capable of filling the club by making phone calls to people to get them to show. He had an address book loaded with names and would spend a better part of his time making contacts. Me and many other people would buy Mike a beer to keep him fueled during the night. He didn't maintain employment. This oddly occurred to me one night when he sat next to me at a table put his fore arms on his thighs inter laced his fingers together, looked at the floor and asked me what it was like holding a full-time job. The funny part he wasn't joking he was dead serious. It turned out he had never maintained full time employment. I explained the negatives of waking up every day but in the long run it payed off because I normally had money in my pocket. "Ya, I see, "in deep thought. A couple of years later the manager of the club Chris offered him an opportunity for a career in the family business of a marine mechanic which Mike jumped on board. If you're a local band from those times or today you should shake Mike's hand, he played a large part in helping to establish the Metal scene of Revere Beach that is still going on today at Sammy's Patio. I lost contact with Mike and can't find him on the internet. I've seen his sister but am afraid to ask. The last I heard he was on his 3rd heart attach trying to keep up with everyone, that was years ago.
Some of my personal favorite bands were(in no particular order): Bad Mother Seed, Barrel of Monkeys, Uncle Freak and a rock and roll band called Boston Brats( they were grandfathered into the Metal scene). Another metal band called Godsmack played several times at the Tank before taking flight. I had a brief relationship with a groupie of Godsmack named Susan who would play their CD in 1998 before they took flight. Susan would travel around to the Red Rooster, Wally's Pub and the Tank snapping photos of the band in action, she most likely has a large collection of early days of the band. I was an equal fan of the local bands including Godsmack at about the same level. We were hanging around Fleetwood Studios one night when talk of who was going to back the band up in their upcoming tour when I mentioned that most likely the band has no say in it and that the record company will be telling them. You don't get that sort of control until your 3rd CD at least that was true back then. A second brief relationship I had in those days was with a stripper named Brittney. She was the number one at King Arthur's Lounge(Latino dudes of Chelsea would debate me on that, some of the Caribbean women were smoking hot). My failure was trying to maintain an off and on-again relationship with my daughter's mother. Man did I blow it.
Boston Brats were a highly entertaining band that almost too flight. I believe one of the main reasons for not taking flight was their studio album. It did not capture the energy of the band. A groupie of the band gave me their compact disc and a hand full of trinkets baring the band's name and logo (coasters, drink mixers and assorted odd items, one of those things you throw out and latter wish you didn't). I first became aware of "capturing" a sound and understanding how important it is by Kiss. In my opinion the CD was over produced. I remember playing it and popping the CD back out several times to see if the CD was theirs and not some other band. Someone put a large amount of money into the album, but the album failed to capture what the band was actually like. If they liked what they seen and heard with the band, then why did they change that with the CD. If what attracted, you to the sound the band makes try to capture that and not change it. I get the impression the producer was paid hourly and maximized the number of billable hours. Bad Mother Seed is or was, not sure which another great band with pure old school Metal groove. Last I heard the sing was talking of moving to Waltham MA and that was the last I heard of them other than they released a CD in 2008 "puff." That CD captures what the band is like, 100% perfection. If anybody knows what if anything is going on with that band leave in the comments section and I will gladly link. Tommy Lanzillo's "Uncle Freak" was capable of packing a 600-person club which is pretty remarkable for a local band. The jack ass whistling at this show was me, sorry Tommy I was under the influence. There was trouble with the sound early on that night, so I interrupted the set and positioned the mics the way they are supposed to be, at an angle and not pointing directly at speakers which I constantly see bands do. I'm not an expert but do know some things. Capture the sound as it goes by the mic. I learned that at some formal training I had in sound engineering. Pro mic set ups you will notice today have that angle built into the mounts for drums mics. It makes sense if you sit back and think about it. The sound waves are hitting a brick wall if you point the mic directly at the speakers because of peaks and high amount of compression added to combat them which will dull the sound (forget it way too much info). Anyways, felt I needed to inject that. The trouble Tommy had was he wanted to do it all himself. Many people do this and eventually burn out. If people are willing and looking to help the band out ya know what? Let them, it will relieve some of the stress upon you as a band leader. And don't expect perfection and criticize every small mistake, most people in the crowd don't know the mistake was made only musicians notice and they know better than to point it out. If you don't like the mistakes being played live, then blame yourself for not holding more frequent rehearsals. Apparently, they are needed and that's how you lead. Pointing the finger at others is not how it's done. Remember some of your biggest critics are your biggest fans. As far as Barrel of Monkeys, as of this writing, there is no internet presence and the band that comes up while searching is not the one I mentioned (I was hoping to link to some reference, none).
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Hanging out

You can either sign up with the best or hang out with the rest

Bruce Nuclear Generating Station

During the 1990's and early part of the 2000's I frequently travel to Bruce Nuclear Generating Station in Canada. On the shore of Lake Huron. For the record if you like Salmon fishing this area is one of the best, I use to watch the Salmon during spawning season on the lake come right up to the docks and they were huge. The water is used from the lake for the power plant. Mostly for cooling and then dumped back into the lake. The water is actually cleaner when put back in the lake after it is processed in the plant. Most people think that its contaminated and destroying the waters but it's just the opposite. At some local supermarkets you will see tomato's that are called green house tomato's. Some of these on the east coast of the United States comes from these nuclear plants. The excess steam produced is used to heat green houses that grow tomato's.
We cleaned steam generators and did inspection work of the steam generators. Inspection of the internals of the generators mainly because the whole industry is still learning about nuclear power and study it intensely. I prefer Navy work because the radiation levels in commercial plants are higher than the Navy. The main reason is commercial plants are run for profit and the Navy runs for efficiency/ reliability. There have been mistakes because of this that can not be reversed but learned from. The Japanize clean their steam generator regularly to increase reliability which in turn translates into higher efficiency. The Canadians now know but took some time and damage in the process. What happens is there is cross contamination from the primary side to the secondary side of the steam generators and this is where the contamination comes from. Because of lack of preventive maintenance, that's the short version and no more detail because I start to drift into a territory that the government would rather not like to see publish or chatting online about (the Navy knows more about me than I do about myself, I held and maintained a secret clearance for the Department of Defense for 13 years). Most radiation workers are healthy individual because they are required to visit doctors periodically for check ups and most people don't. So fixable problems are found in the early stages such as prostate cancer(I need to go soon myself to be checked besides I enjoy fat finger Doctors!). Which is curable if found early. Today I'm no longer involved in this type of industrial work. I can say that I made a very good living while doing it.
Bruce Nuclear Generating Station is located as I stated on the shores of Lake Huron and in the middle of corn fields. You either work at the plant or the local farm equipment store. Most women move out after college because they are not interested in working in the power generating station. The environment of station is something that should be learned by the Nuclear industry and other businesses as well. It strictly functional with block walls. Zero atmosphere. There is a constant loud hum from the turbines and the employees suffer from a high rate of alcoholism and in my opinion it is directly related to the atmosphere of the plant. Remember we are human and not machines. The atmosphere in which we live in can and will have a dramatic affect upon your life. If things aren't going well in your life try to remember that one it is possible its just the way or with whom your living with. We like to look at pleasant things, it makes us happier and in turn more productive. Harley Davidson was one of the first to study this and implement it. With air conditioning (ac). They installed ac units and found that the workers were more productive that far exceeded the cost of running ac. In other words not only did I not like the high dose of radiation but the atmosphere sucked also, bad. The good news was I was working 7 days a week 13 hours a day and my bank account was flush with cash. Many company employees were stating that they didn't want to travel to Canada to do the work mainly because the atmosphere was horrible. The problem was that meant I was traveling more often than most. Not that I minded that much but my argument was that is what we do for a living and if you didn't like that well the front door is over there. Call it harsh if you like but it was reality. I constantly run into people who don't like certain aspects of there job. I have the same thing but I don't complain, why because its my job and you take the bad with the good. Its not all roses. People think that a company is going to change things just for them the fact is there not going to and if you complain enough they will replace you with some one who is will to take the bad with the good. Enough on that.
Shortly after the terrorist attack know as 911 on New York and this country when the government allowed air traffic again we embarked to Hydro for more of the same. This time period was probably one of the safest times to fly in the history of aviation. There was nobody at the airport and security was carrying m-16.I had 6 paper clips confiscated upon entry at the terminal. There were 10 people on board 8 were from my company Foster-Miller which has since been bought out by QinetiQ North America. I started with Foster Miller as a temporary employment worker, I asked at the time how much work do they have and they told me they had a couple of days work, I was with them for 15 years. The generally was uneventful because nothing breaks or malfunctions. One trip I went on a manager asked me to inventory spare parts after we had already inventoried them and I wasn't sure if he was just keeping me busy or busting my cookies. If you were a manager you would come out a hero because the job was always successful and most experienced managers did their best to stay away from the job, it sucked with boredom. We worked along side of boiler makers from Canada who travel from outage to outage. These are regularized scheduled shut downs of the plant to preform maintenance(much needed). Canada as of this writing supplies 12% of the needed electricity from nuclear power as compared to the United States has 19%. Many of the workers have RV's they use to live in while traveling. They are paid for meals and hotel rooms(per diem) so they save the money by sleeping in RV's. On the weekends I would go out with some of the boys to a local watering hole to relieve some pressure via consumption of alcohol. Local bar owners loved the shut downs because of the money spent in their pub. Most places would handle 75-100 person capacity and on weekends would be packed with 150 boiler makers spending some overtime money on food and beverage. One night I remember well we had and over capacity crowd and the owner called in his mother sisters and fiends to help with the tending of the bar. Nothing worse than waiting more than 15 minutes for a beer. Before he called them in me and many others were ordering 2 at a time so we didn't have to wait. The owner being a experienced businessman know that if he didn't correct that condition he could potential loose business by people leaving. He was correct. The place would get double loud but never any trouble just occasional scuffles and yelling.
As far as brain numbing atmosphere one dude I worked with Russ hated the job with a passion so much so that physiologically tormented his mind because he was always thinking how much he hated the job and drove himself nuts. He worked mainly the second shift because I worked the second shift through out the 90's and was vocal about working that shift, I never could get use to it like other people can. On one particular night he had drove himself so mad about not wanting to be there that he started throwing aluminum pallets around after he was asked to move them by a manager from Bruce. Of cause this didn't go over well. I also walked in one morning to him carrying on a wild conversation with nobody around with his hand down his pants, flat out odd behavior. After this trip he was recommended never to travel to Canada again. The cement block walls, constant hum of motors and telling himself how much he hated the job drove him crazy. In the end of traveling to Canada the folks bought the system and we no longer traveled to Canada. For some reason for over ten years the company I worked for did the work and had some of the employees of Bruce help with operating the system and then all of a sudden bought it after ten years of leasing, I guess what I'm getting at is it would have been much cheaper to buy it eight years earlier.
I got the idea of storing my motorcycle in my kitchen from a dude I worked with in Canada(they had the same people each time) named Chief. I forget his personal name but he is an American Indian standing about 6'7" and we called him Chief. He like the name and was far from offended by it. He was the only one on the first shift I trusted in operating the system by himself he had an interest and it showed. Chief lived in a high rise building if I remember right it was 12 stories. Every year he had to store his Harley for the winter. So being frugal he and some friends would lift the Harley vertical in the elevator to get it to fit and bring it up to his apartment(all gas was drained and left out side to evaporate any residual fumes). When he told that it solved the storage problem with my 1958 chopper-in the kitchen she went.

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Chrysler Engineers

Just got done putting in inner tie rods. Last year during car inspection I paid a local company $350 to put one new inner tie rod in the car so it will pass inspection. They never did the work. Inner tie rod sounds hard to do but I just did it in the driveway in 1 1/2 hours which is good timing. The engineers at Chrysler left plenty of room to do the job and it is not as hard as it sounds. The hardest part was measuring the old tie rod to put the new tie rod at the same length. I paid the dude but notice that he didn't do the job. He put a new inspection sticker on the car so I couldn't bitch too much but the problem still existed. Pretty sad when you charge some one for work that you never done. This year I bought all the parts needed to completely rebuild the front end of my black 300m. This way the front end is tight and I have no trouble during car inspection. One of the inspection process that they check on ten year old cars is how tight the front end is. Most inspection facilities are trying to pay the rent with your old car. If you can't work on your car your self it's not worth paying somebody to do repairs to this magnitude. I have been doing it for years not that I want to but just can't afford to pay a mechanic to do it. Believe me I would love to hand the keys to a mechanic and say "let me know when your done." Any ways "eff" that dude and his future failure of a business.

To my friend

I see you have gotten out of your rocking chair.?! I wasn't quite sure who that was. That wasn't the rock and roll girl I knew and love. You married rock and roll long before you married him, so he's got to go. As soon as I see you put that Jack Daniels shirt back on I will be at your front door my dear. One of my top 3 tee shirts, I have vivid images. You are one of the sexiest yet fun to be with person I have ever meet and that was too many years ago. I look back on things now and every women I have meet I expected them to be like you and they weren't, far from it. That is how it has been. I left the the person I loved and that hurts bad.I have a song that the guitar part is just not coming to me and I now know why. It needs a piano. The song is called "Mother" and I wrote it at my bottom so it is very powerful and not a toy. I don't play piano but if I remember correctly you do. I refuse to use an acoustic guitar they are so boring. You have made the correct choice in life because it is how you want to live, I see it in your smile. With Love, your best friend Dess

Yahoo and Porn

Please Google, please buy Yahoo and put them out of business, please. Not sure how it happened and I'm having trouble removing it. Yahoo's portal comes up when I want to log on to the internet. I hate Yahoo. It is so annoying and an insult for Yahoo to think that I'm an idiot and try to fool me into thinking that the payed advertising that comes up on the front page is what I'm searching for . This tactic occurred in the early stages of the internet as companies tried to figure out how to make money on advertising while hosting, ya know to make the whole thing free for the user. So, when you looked up something the first 6 or so lines were actual advertisers and not the info you were trying to find. This got annoying after awhile and final Google kicked in and found other ways to make money on ad's yet keep the info that you are searching for on the front page. Please Google put Yahoo out of their misery. On top of that the text used by Yahoo is disturbing.It reminds of America On Line ad's years ago, just flat out disturbing. AOL had these ads about families getting together and "surfing" the internet together as a family affair like when the television first came out in the 50's. The fact was most people, at that time, were "surfing" for porn. Dirty porn and that's what we wanted AOL, dirty porn and if you weren't going to provide us with dirty porn then we found other search engine that did and this is the reason you don't exist today. Give the people what they want. Pregnancy rate, in the US, surly spiked during the mid to late nineties as young professionals would go home and practice "maneuvers" learned on the office computer. It was so bad, that at a company I was working at was issuing paper memo's and emails regarding porn on company computers and the amount of time being consumed by employees doing this. The company hired a lot of "fresh out of College" career starters. By mid day the temperature in office areas rose by ten degrees due to body heat generated by porno and the air-conditioner would kick on in the winter. It was so bad that the company bought some sort of program that combated search words used to find porn. Please Google, put Yahoo out of business, please.

Razor Blades and Batteries

I actually remembered which razor blade handle I had purchased last time and bought the correct blades for it this morning. The amount of different razor blades one can buy with different handle styles is disturbing. I had trouble with this early on, buying the wrong style blades, which the razor blade industry hopes you do, this increases revenue.(?)When you build a business model around that idea there is something wrong. Personally I stuck with the Market Basket(MB) brand.Go to Walmart and check out the different varieties of razor blade manufactures and different styles, this is what made me switch to MB.Mb stream lined the whole thing and only offers select styles and models. This increases your odds of picking which one you bought last. They have a whole side of one isle dedicated to razor blades, I walked out dizzy. MB brands are cheaper and there is a good chance that one of the larger manufacturers are the ones that Market Basket brands. For those who might be unaware of what I'm talking about is MB doesn't build there own razor blades they buy them from a manufacture and just repackage them. I use to buy major brand but no more its just too confusing which one I bought last. I would guess that major manufactures of razor blades have seen a decrease in sales on their own models and an increase in sales to places like MB. The whole thing reminds me of batteries and the different styles and models of such. The are so many different batteries that we now have "Batteries Plus" stores that sell only batteries.If the major manufactures of razor blades decrease the amount of models, I bet, guess what? An increase in sales. This goes against the grain but so didn't John Fitzgerald Kennedy when he told Congress that a decrease in taxes would increase revenue. They all laughed, guess what he was right it did worked. He decreased taxes and revenue for the Government increased and the country loved(s) him for that.

Hyeon

Bartenders

I would like to take a moment and welcome the bartender staff of this nation to the 21st century. Bars or water holes are now starting to install taps for beer that are self service. Just enter your credit card and bing-go, you have a fresh beer. No more waiting for the bar tender with an attitude for a fresh beer. Just enter your credit card number and pour your self a beer. Remember folks no body could care less when it was the manufacturing work force that were now losing jobs, well guess what? It's now you...man that sucks. I was never a part of the manufacturing community when they were losing jobs but guess what, the red flag went up for me to take note of the evolution of the world economy and my simpothy went out to them and I studied the situation, its been twenty five years now, stay tuned...love life

It's Everybody Else

When you start to think it's everybody else, there's a good chance it's you.

SP-3

Just donated a pair of old Peavey SP-3 PA speakers and amp head to a local charity that resales items. What am I gonna do sell it. Maybe $100 buxs. I could use $100 buxs but I don't need it. It made me feel good that some local teens are setting it up in a local garage and make some noise. I don't generally give money to any organization but I had no trouble doing that. I have a feeling that PA never hits the show room floor. I bet some dude or gal in the back room make some calls coming in the door Saturday morning to some pals to bring that noise maker to the garage and that's what its all about people, give to your local unknown friend.

P5K

P5K July 4, 2015, the afternoon began cloudy and those expecting a night filled with sparkles, shooting stars, colorful explosion and vivid light shows in the sky were about to be disappointed by fireworks shows not going on because of weather conditions in many towns across New Hampshire but not at Jewel Nightclub. Powerman 5000 (P5K) pulled into town and no matter what the weather condition are outside inside the club was about to explode in a theatrical or commonly referred to today as "visual metal" set by P5K. An inside fireworks show. I have been waiting for this show to happen for 3 months or what whatever the amount of time since the tickets went on sale. I was most likely one of the first to buy the tickets. I been a fan of the band for over 20 years now and watched them evolve and help create new genres of music twice now. First time in the early 90's with P5K introducing rap rock to the Boston music scene. Second in the late 90's or was it the early part of this century with the evolution of visual rock or a performance with a blend theatrics. Mainly Spider 1(founder and singer) incorporates into the show costumes and laser light show which I have never seen used in a concert mainly because of the style of music I like doesn't go for this but it works double time for P5K. I looked at P5K website just to check things out which most of us do these days with digital influenced minds. In this month of July the band has 3 days off in between show dates. An alarm immediately went off: "oh no is this going to be a burnt out metal star session? Will the band be able to perform with energy I have grow to expect from P5K?" You bet your boots they did. The set was both explosive and entertaining. Which is exactly what I expected and the band fulfilled my expectations and them some. Some of the YouTube available can help with a visual. They played this night like they apparently play every night at every show. Maintaining this amount of energy every night has got to be taxing, it must be, yet it was not evident last night. I reference my own personal work week, by the end of the week I'm beet.
I have a nasty habit of eating while typing on the my laptop. Nachos, some sour cream lodged into the keyboard and now rendered the "P" key barley functional. I have to pound on it to get it to type the letter P. This happened on my last laptop yet at that time I had not associate it with the sour cream being smeared into the keyboard as being the problem. I blamed "HP" for building cheap keyboards and trying to save money and failed. I now know it's the sour cream and not HP. I have to google weather or not I can safely lift the keys to see if it is cleanable.
Bernie the owner/ manager fooled me in a good way. The show was advertising to start at 5pm which is unusual to start a show that early. Soil and Three Years Hollow was the band to back them up as advertised. I figured this must be so people can get out early because it was the 4th of July. I have never been to a club that early ever and I have seen hundreds of shows. Not the case, Bernie had many talented local Metal heads come in and back the band to a festival level. 6 back up bands. That’s worth the price of admission of $25. My personal favorite and this is strictly an opinion was 4x4 Barracuda who play the style of metal that I love. 4x4 Barracuda play mostly in Lawrence Mass area and I have been waiting to see them. Great local band and highly recommended for Metal Heads like myself even thou I play Grunge and I will talk about this at a later date. Have no fear as reported earlier the failure of the a/c system at Jewel nightclub has been fixed and the club was comfortable to be in all night, thanks Bernie. By the way Bernie this helped me and others spend a little more money at the bar. As a side not to the club, it must be noted. The voluptuous bar tender who's name I don't know but will let you know as soon as I find out, is worth the price of admission as visual candy. She stand approximately 5'3 with a set of Double D's that makes it difficult to look her in the eye. The tee shirt she wears is much too small and at a choking level. She cuts the tee at a precise location in the shape of a football that oozes her beautification. She is a "must see." Jet black hair in which I have decided that my 3 wife must have jet black hair. My second wife had blonde and things didn't work out. Stay tuned.......

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Guitar speaker wattage

There's a lot of confusion on how many speakers with the size of amp head you are running. First off there are 2 camps. 1: is what you can afford. Run what you got. If you don't have the cash for new equipment then run what you got or were given. If you have a 100w head and are given a 2x12 cabinet to use that has 50w speakers in them it's ok as long as you don't go above the mid point on your amp.
The speakers should be 100w each in a 2x12, in a 4x12 they should be 50w speakers in a 1x12 you need 200w speaker. The confusion on the internet is that some people are afraid to say they don't have the cash to buy new equipment but would like to use the amp they have to power a cabinet they came across for short cash. The quick answer is, yes you can, just don't turn it up and most people don't anyways. How many times do you run an amp at max volume. I can across this web site that clears it all up. It's a little techy but if you read it 2 or 4 times in comes clear what you can run:(website)the short version is this: 100w head; 1x12 cabinet 200w speaker; 100w head 2x12 cabinet= 100w (each) speakers; 100w head 4x12= 50w(each) speakers. If you have a 50 watt head do the math: 50w head 1x12=100w speaker;50w head 2x12 cabinet= 50w (each)speakers; 50w head 4x12 cabinet= 25w (each) speakers, yet Warehouse is a good source for speakers and another good source with wiring diagrams and info with speakers is Orange County Speaker. I have never seen such confusion on one subject in my entire life. People mix options with facts which is or can be two different worlds.
Next up is you need to know if the cabinet speakers are wired in series(one after another) or parallel (side by side)For people trying to understand parallel imagine a ladder the vertical rungs of the ladder is the power and the rungs that you step on are the speakers, series is easy because it is wired one after the other in a row. Opening up the back panel will clear this mystery up for you. Don't measure the resistance of the line into the cabinet and make an educated guess because it could be incorrect, there are 16ohm speakers out there and if you guess that it's 8ohm speakers in series then you could be wrong, it could be 16ohm speakers in parallel. Measuring the 1/4" connector on the back will tell you what the cabinet is, lets say you measure 10 ohms this would be a 8ohm cabinet the other 2ohms are because you can't have a "perfect connection" when measuring the ohms and it will be slightly higher than expected but not always. Speakers wired in series you add the ohms together, like 4ohm speakers in a 4x12 cabinet = 16ohms at your amp output selector. Most amp heads have 4, 8 and 16ohms positions to chose from and if yours doesn't sell it and buy one that does it just keeps the available option at a maximum. You can measure the connection and determine what ohm setting to put the amp on but not to determine what speakers you have. Hope I don't add to the confusion and this clears it up or brings it down to earth for ya. Here is another good explanation of the confusion: Cleveland Institute of Electronics

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CIA

One of my goals is to have the CIA use one of my songs as a tool of torture for prisoners, apparently they use songs to torture prisoners and I want one of mine to torture ISIS prisoners.

1958 Chopper

I had a dude email on the bike in the picture on my blog. It's a 1958 motor in a Paughco frame and Paughco 9" over springer front end. A 9" over springer is actually a 6" extension from stock length. If your looking to use a springer front end remember that. I started to build it in 1993 I believe. About 6 months before I would meet the mother of my 3 daughters. I bought the "rolling chassis" frame wheels, front end and oil tank and the rest I built. The wheels were Akront rims which were made of aluminum.Today these rims are made by Morad who bought all the tooling from Akront. At the time they were state of the art. I use to mail order in which a local bike shop use to get pissed at me because at the time it turned out that I was paying the same price that he was paying wholesale.(Kevin at Cycle Works in Billerica, MA).He launched into a 15 minute speech about service and the importance of having quality service avalible to customers. Me I keep my mouth shut and blinked when needed. He informed me that he will be calling his ditributer Monday morning (it was a Saturday) and launch a formal complaint. Being a touchy subject with him I never asked him later about the call. The only place I use to buy from was called Hog Hollow, Harley sued them and they change their name to Fog Hollow.I would buy $4.00 parts from Kevin and he always served me with a smile(and a chuckle at times, not sure why). On Saturdays I tended to loose lock rings for oil pumps and snap lock nuts for push rods which I would buy by the dozen. At that time the internet was not main stream in the world and mail order catalogs was the only way. Any ways I built the bike in my kitchen 1. I was young and it made sense. It was the only place I had ie. no garage. Lee, my daughters mother, who at the time was very beautiful and I was madly in love with her. When I first meet her I feel in love. I don't recommend this, but I did not care she had a boy friend at the time what I did care about is that I wanted her and I chase her down double time. She's a Sicilian with large hair like the mother in Married with Children, I always love that big hair dew and lee had that same dew. Nothing stopped me from having her nothing, I was young and I wanted her and got her. I invited her over one day for the first time to have a cocktail before we went out and gladly accepted the offer. Mainly to see where I lived and what I was all about. She came over and entered my kitchen And yelled" Whats that," looking at my 1958 panhead. I said "that's my motorcycle," she said "I know that, why is it in your kitchen?" I told her it is the only place I know to keep it. She gave me a look to kill and married me within a year of that and had 3 children with me. It took me until 1998 before I was finished piecing the bike together. I rebuilt the motor myself after learning from Kurt at American Motorcycle Institute in Daytona FL back in 1990 I forget. Today its called Wyotech. That teacher taught me every thing I know today about mechanics and has payed off for me ten fold.mechanics is a trade used in most industries meaning it's all related. A career I could never get going but loved.I could still today work on older Harley's but don't know much about newer ones. I'm good with Panheads, Shovelheads and Ironheads. I took my time with the bike buying the rolling chassis and then the motor(Bill the Cop found for me) and the the transmission and rebuilding both which was a pleasure to do. I blueprinted the motor which gave me trouble free operation. I later sold the bike because of bad circumstances to a dude in Wakefield Maine. Who showed up with badly needed cash. I did what I had to do at the time. Dess

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YouTube & free, no income music

Lot of musicians are loosing money on sales of their music because of spots such as YouTube. I'm a big fan of YouTube like most folks and you will find me on their site each week. The problem is and I sympathize with musicians is that their songs are given away with no rewards from advertising. If you click on their official channel they do but you can often find hundreds that are not official channels and are by people that post their music and make the money off of advertising. Does sound fair does it. YouTube will remove the channel if you complain copyright violations. So this tells me YouTube is aware of the problem. Napster comes to mind while writing this. Napster was sued and shut down for a time until they cleared up the fact that music was being distributed for free with their full knowledge. its one thing when something is going on and your not aware of it it's another when your fully aware of the crimes being committed and wait until a Federal judge shuts you down to become compliant. YouTube is fully aware of the copyright infringement but generally could care less because they are making millions in advertising and have no intention of correcting the problem until a Federal judge shuts them down and then watch them scramble. Apple is working on a solution to the free music problem but as of this writing I have no details. It will take a company like Apple to correct the problem. If your a band you can hire some one full time to watch YouTube and file claims as needed. Led Zeppelin does this and I'm sure others do.

Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts(up-dated with theory)

I just made a bee line to my spring jacket to make sure my reading glasses made it through the night. Last night I attended a show at the Jewel Night Club and decided to write about the show and need these glasses to start the review. Whenever you bring your reading glasses to a night club it is positive to find they made it home with you. These particular glasses were a small investment and not the usually $3.00 per dozen drug store brand. That tend to break by looking at them in the wrong way. My reading glasses have made it through several night club visits and I have slept with them on 5 different occasions but with no sexual relation.
Recent headlines with Scott Weiland made me concerned about what was going to happen this night. He has been referring to reporters and journalists as “A-hole” media. I have been following Scott, online, in anticipation of last night’s show with his new band “the Wildabouts.” The A-hole media has been after a Scott because of one show, out of hundreds, were there was a problem with Scott's in-ear monitor. These ear pieces are used today by professional musicians in place of stage monitors. They are ten times better for a variety of reasons. On one particular night the malfunction of his ear piece placed him in a bad situation in which his band mates would not be aware of. His ear piece failed. He had no monitors to hear what he was singing. And put him in an award positions not knowing were the band was in the song. Let me explain. He had been relying on the ear monitors all night then they failed, like many electronic and mechanical things do…they fail on occasion. This placed him and you in an odd feeling from switching from an ear monitor to on stage sound in an instant with ear plugs in your ear to muffle the sound. I bet Scott has spare set today but he didn't that night. The A-hole media went after him.
Any A-hole media personal that feels they perform at 100% every night with 100% accuracy even with electronic failure should take note that you’re in the wrong business. You would not be sitting at home staring at you A-hole telephone that still has copper wire attached for communication to the outside world, hoping a editor will run your BullSh#t story on an electronic failure that had occurred and try to translate that into drug use. Your A-hole failure in life is coming to light when you are not capable of reporting what has happened without sensationalizing the story in hopes to selling your story. You also would have a confused look on your face if you couldn't hear what was being played and being in front of a thousand fans. The professional musician always makes mistakes while playing yet they don’t stop the show because of it they continue on, most people don't notice these mistakes. Unless your part of the A-hole media who pages through YouTube trying to find fault with someone to point it out to others because your own pathetic life sucks. As far as the dazed look that Scott does give on occasion I will explain it to the A-hole media on why he has this on occasion. Play on stage with a thousand fans who hold you to a higher degree at a Sound Pressure Level of 129 plus decibels for an hour and half. Today’s sound systems are powerful and body numbing to musicians and crowds alike. then do this night after night for months on end and you also, A-hole media, would have a dazed look your self after the show…it happens. So as the A-hole media picks over people’s lives to try to find some minor fault with someone because their writing ability sucks remember to have a second job waiting because your career as a part of the A-hole media is coming to an end. If all you can write about are faults with others you are out of material and stagnant. Take a shower you A-hole media because, simply put, you suck.
Or here is my theory which I realized a couple of days after writing this. Its more than a theory but the word theory sounds good. I propose this; Is Scott Weiland that smart? What do I mean? Did Scott purposely pull that blank look on stage to cause controversy? The answer is yes to both. A Scott is that smart and causing controversy does bring attention to the band which helps sells albums. Especially when your about to release an album which Scott just did. First cause a little controversy and then release your album. The controversy brings you head lines which is free advertising. How do I know Scott is that smart? Here check out this quote by Scott after he was tossed from STP:Scott Theory Evidence
Ok, now that I vented on media personal back to the review.
I don’t know the band members but they are are powerful and an inspiration to other musicians and you will see that if you see them live. The drummer is mind blowing powerful with no need to mic his set. The dude stands at 230 pounds of solid mass and capable of delivering a sound pressure level of 132 DB. I was unaware that today they make titanium skins for drums. I have never witness such pounding on the drums before this night. Not sure how the drum set stayed in position receiving such a pounding complete with broken stick being tossed aside and a fresh supply of sticks (dozen plus) next to him. The drums surly must have been bolted to the stage. This was an absolute surprise for me to see and hear such a fantastic drummer. Being a fan of drummers, I tend to hold drummers to a higher level with regard to performance than most people or most musicians will. I had not expected a drummer of this caliber to playing with Scott, not sure why I just didn't expect it. If you’re a drummer looking for inspiration to play better and louder without the need for mics see Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts he will help bring you to the next level. Scott hasn't announced, as of this writing, on their website who the band members are so I don’t know the dudes name. All I can tell you is this dude is an inspiration to drummers at least on the rock and roll side of town.
Next up: “Nick” the guitarist. That’s all I have as far as a name goes but that’s what I pickup on the internet that his name is…Nick. Talk about picking up a guitar at full steam ahead with a band that you just joined a month ago and making it sound like you have known the band members your entire life because of the blending that he did with the band. He read the members next moves and ran with it at every song. The tones that Nick was delivering during the night reminded me of a dinner I had in Portsmouth VA while working at the Norfolk Naval Station for the Navy. The meal was expensive and attendance at the restaurant was mad with reservation only. Several engineers I worked with insisted I go with them to this restaurant and “experience” a meal. They were right, I ordered lamb chops. The interesting thing was the chops had a different flavor to them around the plate as you ate, read that twice. Meaning the plate of chops tasted different in different parts of the chops. Nick had this same thing going on with tones. He was delivering different tones with each song and his guitar playing became an experience rather than just note picking. The set was complete with purposely placed feedback to complement a show that was being delivered RAW, which again I had not expected this from a Scott Weiland band. I guess I was expecting a more orchestrated band like when he was in Velvet Revolver. In this band every note had a place which is cool in respect of the show sounding like an album. This show I “experienced” was RAW rock and roll or off the cuff jamming which is double cool and takes talent to read the other musicians in the band during these jam sessions that can change night to night. Nick didn't break a sweat until ¾ of the way through the set which was not him but the house he was playing in and I will talk about this shortly. The black hair dude with the bass (name unknown). I going to admit something that I would rather not but I think it is OK to admit. I have for years placed bass players in the wrong category I think it is because of Bill Wyman’s lack of enthusiasm while playing in a band. The category I wrongly placed bass players in was “no need.” The dude with black hair and a Rickenbacker bass just changed my view on bass players. He blasted sound waves through the set shaking the dust off the rafters of the old mill building the Jewel night club is housed in. Up until this point I thought bass players only played simple notes to songs and help keep the beat. Not hear, the dude with black hair showed me and most likely others that bass playing is an instrument played by few for good reason, it’s a complex instrument and not readily understood, that’s what I came away with while watching him play (and feel him play).
The Wildabouts album has just been released and from last night’s set this album is worth checking out and not just some commercial release by Scott Weiland to help pay the bills. Scott has put together a band. A band to record with, a band to tour with and a band to see live. Most song of course I didn't recognize mainly because they were mostly new material. The same licks were recognized in which Scott has been associated with, continues today as evident with the songs played last night. Some old Stone Temple Pilots tunes were thrown in to satisfy the fans of STP. I’m not sure they were needed but it worked. One particular song was played and as of this writing I have not looked for it on iTunes but will, was an acoustic song played as an encore. It was the only acoustic number played so you hard core rockers need not worry if you plan to see them live. I tell ya that I will admit that hearing this song made me glad to be alive. That’s the feeling I had while listening to it. As corny and stupid as it might sound to the hard core dudes out hear that’s what it was and I feel compelled to tell it as I felt and that’s how I felt. Real simple tune note wise but full of love and feeling this one came from deep within Scott’s inner self you can hear it. Scott writes from personal experience or personal feelings and he was on to something with this song, dynamite work Scott keep delivering that message dude, it’s working.
Do I have any complaints about the show the answer is yes. Listen up Bernie (owner/manager of the Jewel). Dude, you need to make an investment in air conditioning and at minimum an investment in air circulation. The club was stagnant with no spare oxygen. Never mind comfortable air conditioning. I can help; I just happen to be in the HVAC business and for a nominal fee and fix the problem that might put you out of business if not corrected. The sweat poured from my pours of the Coors Light I consumed the night before and apparently Scoot Weiland also. The only one who seemed to handle the heat was Nick. You could see the beads of perspiration come off the bodies of the performers with the back lighting. It was that visible. I looked around to see if there was just a problem with the AC that night and the answer is no. On the walls of the club there are grills not capable of handling the stagnant air. I will put it in perspective so most people can understand. Take a ten by twelve room put a ½ inch hole in the wall (this is the ventilation). Now put 2 dozen people in the room on a 95 degree high humidity day. Same affect Bernie, you cannot remove the air volume with the system you have in place. Bernie’s younger version (apparently his son or close relative) knew better than to hang around inside the club. During the night he would poke his head in the club to check things out and then quickly exit back outside, he’s no fool. Ladies who were up close to the stage at the beginning of the night left ½ way through the set with sweet pouring from their scalps from the extremely high humidity and heat inside the club. Wait until August for a full blown experience of overheating from the crowds. Possible Bernie you could attach a fee to the bands that play there to offset the costs of installing a system that can handle the crowds but expect some “rolling of the eyes” from band managers who feel your making plenty from the booze being consumed and might have some “choice words” for ya. We use ventilation as a minimum today Bernie this is not the 80’s anymore. Please install some air conditioning ASAP. Thanks Dess
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Can Openers

I'm trying a new experiment on can openers. For years I have been trying to find a can opener that works more than two days. I have alot of money and very little money on can openers and always the end result...dissatisfied. Today for the second time my can opener actually opened a can with out stopping or slipping. usually a can opener will make it 1/4 the way around a can before it slips. Well today for the second time I used the can opener with success. What I did was lightly press on the handle just so the can opener punctured the can and it opened the can with one try. Stay tuned

Van Halen

If there is a band that made you proud to be a part of the 80's it would be or should be, Van Halen

Little Bit of Both

Trying to make a decision and can't decide between this or that; new or old; the answer is "a little bit of both." Try it some time you will find it works well.

BB King

Looks like where losing BB King. He is under hospice care right now. bad news....that dude taught me a lot about hanging a note.

Hi E or Low E

I have decided to permanently remove the high E from my guitar. First off I am tired of the high E breaking and needing to buy new strings just to replace one string. Second I find it more annoying than useful. Third the old man takes off his low E string because he is old school rock and roll and does not like that low thump that we enjoy today. So I figure why not. F it, if he can get away not using a low E string then I can get away with not using a high E string.

Online Courses

Teachers are enjoying online line courses because they can set up a whole class and teach the same thing over and over again and enjoy the minute interaction with students. Minimum questions to answer, no nights, no scribing on the white board,no papers to carry and correct, many math classes are now done by web sites and teachers only monitor the site on a place called blackboard or "my math lab".Just remember teach, as soon as the school figures out how to replace you with some one in another country making 5 dollar a day like they did in manufacturing....guess what?, your gone, so enjoy the easy course teaching and remember to have something to fall back on when your career disappears. You will become a statistic like the millions of manufacturing jobs that disappeared and you and your colleagues at the time could care less about those jobs and the people who held them because it wasn't your ass...remember? Welcome to the twenty first century teach...only the strong survive.

The Best

If you wanna be the best you need to learn from the best

Dog Bones 9th demo

Punk influence 9th demo, song about a loner who has a possession that is an obsession. Like a dog who savers his dog bones. That's the parallel meaning. Many of my songs or lyrics in my songs have a parallel meaning. I mention this old man not because your reading this and I feel some sort of need to explain it. I mention it because I know younger people read this blog and might be wondering how to write lyrics to songs and it has nothing to do with you or the way you think. "Pissing on the hay" has to do with some people I work with. In the shop, which I work in between field work, some of the dudes go out back and urinate in the snow. Urinate on top of others urine. I find this disgusting personally, but that's where the verse came from."Wishing night was day" has to do with the dude wishing it was day again so he can become obsessed with his possession all day again. The "bow wow" part of the song came about as I was writing the song and took a break to walk up the street to pick up a 12 pack of Coors Light. When I walked out the door of my place the dog across the street slowly barked at me. I was at first apprehensive about the song when the lyrics were coming to me. I didn't understand what the song was about. I was writing the lyrics in draft form first then i realize the song was about a loner who had a possession that was an obsession.Some times songs come to me as beats or a melody and the lyrics change over a short period of time, this one didn't it just took a while for me to understand the meaning.All my songs have meaning or came from a personal experience or I discard the song."Love on" is just most loners don't have a girl or guy but wish at times they did for some relief. I never rush a song and most writing sessions occur over a couple of days, 1 to 2 hours per session(at the most), I never force a song out, if you do you will fail to produce a significant song. Let it flow. Like I said old man this is not written for you. back to top

Alice Cooper: The Original Freak

I'm not sure when the first time I heard the name Alice Cooper. I seem to have been born knowing his name and band. What I do remember from the first times that I heard Alice's music was when I was a young man in the housing projects. The teenagers would play his newly released LP named Billion Dollar Babies and play it loud. It would echo off the brick and mortar. If you like rock music this album is part of the foundation to hard rock as you know it today. If you’re a musician trying to find the roots of hard rock this album is among the best and a must hear that dates pre 1980’s. I was taught by the old man that you need to learn the blues to play rock and roll and learn the blues I did. At the age of 13-15 I would take the bus to Harvard Square in Cambridge MA to a record store named: Mystery Train to find these blues artist that the old man told me I needed to know before I learned about rock and roll. At times this is referred to as an apprentice as Paul Stanley talks about in this Observer interview. Some of the blues musician I would buy albums of were Johnny Winter, BB King, John Lee Hooker, Al Kooper and James Montgomery just to name a few.I use to see James Montgomery play at a blues joint called Harpers Ferry located in the Allston-Brighton area of Boston MA which was heavily populated with night clubs. That is as far back I went with blues, blues music dates way before those dudes with the exception of John Lee Hooker. When I was done with the albums I would bring them back for an exchange for more albums as I studied blues. This is true with hard rock and one of the artist you need to look up, if your researching hard rock, is Alice Cooper. Alice by the way was a good friend of Jim Morrison and in one of the Doors songs, Roadhouse Blues Jim sings a verse famous: "woke up this morning and got myself a beer" that was Alice talking to Jim one day, Jim put it in a song, double cool.
Back when Alice started out painting his face with black eyeliner you were considered a freak by older people of the day and also today, so, Alice is the original freak and he has influenced countless freaks and he is still rocking today. If your going to paint your face with eye liner or mascara or what ever its called be prepared to be referred to and looked at as a freak. Lets have a look at some of the world renowned freaks. By the way some of these musicians I am a big fan of such as Rob Zombie, Rob is bit of a death hair freak. Second freak on the list is Marilyn Manson a suit and tie freak, personally never heard his music but he sells out shows so hats off. I need to also mention Slip Knot who are a whole band of freaks, I seen these freaks playing on the Boston Common by accident one day in 2002 and later found out that the band was paying back taxes by having the free show on the common and other cities. Willie Nelson I seen also doing the same thing: paying back taxes. This was part of the President Bush administration that if entertainers couldn't pay back taxes they had to play for free and this would pay the owed taxes, cool. There's not much cool about the old man Bush but that was cool they could have put them in prison.
I hold Alice Cooper personally responsible for being the original freak. Alice Cooper's radio show is as cool as cool goes,check it out soon. At times Alice rambles on about incoherent topics but he makes a lot of sense to me and an absolute f#@k'ing riot and on one occasion I had to pull over while listening in my car so not to cause an accident. What he was talking about made no sense but was complete?! Check out his show: Nights with Alice. Alice Cooper the original Freak and original hard rockers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Deflate-gate

OK this has been on my mind all week with head hunting for the New England Patriots. Could the problem with the footballs being under inflated have been because the footballs were inflated in a heated room and when check were check out side in the cold air. Meaning the air was cold when checked for pressure. Heated air and cold air measure different pressures. How do i know this? My car has a display with the tire pressures on it. One of the sensors is broken so the display is constantly reading what the tire pressures are. When the tires are heated up from driving around the pressure rises upwards of 4 psi more with the hot air in the tires. Could this be the same problem with the footballs? The pressure first measured indoors and then measured outdoors with an incorrect differential recorded? Incorrect because the conditions were different: cold air vs hot air. This is why dealers and race cars use nitrogen to inflate tires because it does not change as much. They don't use "regular," what you breath, air. Also humidity in the air helps change pressure as well with fluctuations in temperature. As the NFL tries to rip apart a legacy the New England Patriots franchise has created through direct effort(hard work from players and management), have they talked to anybody about these two points that I have just made? Just a thought.

Breed Some

Got my 8th demo up on ReverbNation, song called Breed Some. Song came about while I was "jamming out" another song I have in mind to write. I just took a break from jamming the song and came up with this one. It took 2 day and a case of Coors Light to get through it. The song is not a pervert type of song but is in a angled way about people's openness to a more exotic life style than once was. The whole society as a whole. People are more open than in past generations. That's what I had in mind while writing the lyrics. Thanks for checking it out

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Chicken breast war update

As reported in a previous writing called: chicken breast war between Walmart and Market Basket it appears, although not yet confirmed, that Market Basket has lowered their price on boneless, skinless chicken breast to $1.99 per pound and have given up on setting the price at $2.99 per pound. I noticed this this morning while shopping for fat free sour cream and $.99 cent tomatoes for my chicken nachos.They are not advertising the price which makes me believe the price has changed back for good ...stay tuned

The Chinese Peak

originally I wrote this in 2009 while hanging around the coffee shops of Portsmouth NH, I had gotten divorce for the second time and was enjoying being myself again, and have updated it today due to some recent headlines that need attention.
The Chinese government understands that their society does not understand quality in workmanship when building products. So doesn't the world at this point. The government's answer is to build Universities to educate the population. This goes against communism in a way that communism thrives on uneducated people. Pol Pot of Cambodia executed millions of his country men and women for simply being educated or even having an opinion on any given subject. They spoke of keeping the people of Cambodia simple and to live by simple ways of life.That technology is the devil (or what ever your interpretation of the devil is). Most of the time it is referred to "Western Ways" of doing things but you don't hear that as much today because "Western Ways" are bleeding into society of every nation on planet earth via the internet. It's the way people want to live and express them selves.
Anyways back to the Chinese government. In building Universities and allowing their people to become educated this will in time will have a reverse affect on communism. This will become an inertia of thought and knowledge.The more the people become educated the more they will denounce communism.
The government has allowed complete destruction of country. drinking water is becoming scarce and breathing fresh air is uncommon in city life. They have such polluted air that you can not exercise in Beijing. There are no fish in streams and rivers that surround cities. They have no Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) like we have here in the USA. They could care less about the world community and basically do what they want with out concern to the environment. Soon their children will start being born with birth defects because of exposure to chemicals, women will be, while pregnant.In that article they talk about the affects of air pollutant being unclear yet in this article about direct contact is clear. Saturating the air with solvents becomes direct contact. It will also have an effect on the world air quality as the pollutants start to migrate around the world via air currents and destruction of the ozone layer in the earth's atmosphere.Once these effects start to happen it will be hard to reverse the effects.
One problem that awaits is when things come to a halt in China with regard to production of goods because of the destruction they are causing, there will be limited countries to turn to for production of goods because they are non existent. This will have an affect on the world economy because we will pay more or much more for products this is the short term view. Long term will be most countries will start to recognize the importance of being self reliant. Not to rely on outside sources in a substantial way; meaning: to sole source in your own country because sole source from other countries can and will have tremendous impact, we in the USA have seen this with oil.Today we are becoming more self reliant on oil and results are obvious. We only see this in gas because we don't produce goods today other wise it would be across the board. The negative impact of China's fall will be short lived because of profit. The USA and other countries will quickly rebuild their production houses. The only way to combat this is to have a world EPA like NATO and enforceable by blocking exports of non compliant countries. China is non compliant.
Today in this era is the peak of communistic China, they will from here descend down ward until they reach a democracy.
This writing does not mean I don't like the people of China, you can note how I specifically stated Chinese government, I mention that because I know a small group of people will think that i don't like people from the Asia and that would be a false, if not ignorant, statement.

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Confronting its Existence

"The first step to eradicating the scourge of modern slavery is acknowledging and confronting its existence," she said. Theresa May.....(article is here)

This quote is important to understand. Many people walk around and purposely ignore what truly is occurring around them. For some, it is because they don't want to believe that "such a thing" is occurring. This quote you will find will hold deep truth in other areas of society and not just with a article about slavery in the UK. There are many people and groups of people who feel they are greater than others because of wealth and power, this mind set is part of the "old guard," this mind set is also coming to an end because of the wealth of self education available via the internet and exposure because of the internet. The "old guard" thrived in this world that hide what they do because of their wealth and power/social status, it is coming to an end. There are still some newspapers in existence that will not go against certain people because of their social status.
One of the more recognizable names that this happen with is Bill Cosby (that's a good link for an example) who recently became exposed by social media, weather you believe it or not "something went on," just by the shear numbers of woman coming forward with a report about drugging and then raping. When you knowingly drug someone with the purpose of having sex with them, that is rape, many people confuse rape and what or how about it comes about. He had complete "intent" and it is not a misunderstanding what consensual sex is.
Many more exposures will come to light soon as people become educated via the internet.The old guard continues to fight this and is some what "shock" and this evolving society and the way people think. Many of the old guard exists in the Middle East (predominately). It is more of a mind set than an age thing. But it came from the "baby boomers" and generations before them. This does not mean if your a "baby boomer" that you are part of the old guard.

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Sound Mixing

It a "blast" to do something you love doing, in my case it is sound mixing for music. I was given the opportunity to mix sound for the Bel Airs this season and invited back for next season in which I'm already looking forward to. Some people like golfing some like hunting...me I like mixing sound and seeing people enjoy it.My only complaint is that there wasn't enough shows.I only forgot to bring PA speakers once during the season, fortunately the venue we played at had it's own speakers to use, this was the only venue that had it's own speakers.
2014

• May 31 (Saturday) Newmarket Heritage Festival, Newmarket, 5:30 pm for one hour
• Jun 7 (Saturday Night) Alcott Auditorium 93 Laurel St. Concord, MA 01742 8 PM two 50 min. sets, end by 10 pm.
• Jun 17 (Tuesday Evening)- Seashell Stage, Hampton Beach. 7:00 PM and 8:30 PM, two one hour sets
• Jun 24 (Tuesday Night) Henniker Town Concert, Henniker, 7 pm for 2 hours
• Jun 25 (Thursday Night) Cruise Night at Ridgewood Center, Bedford, about 6:30/7:00ish length tbd (TENTATIVE)
• Jun 28 (Saturday Night) “Back Room” at The Mill Ice Cream Cafe, 7:30 pm for two hours with a 15 minute break.
• Jun 30 (Monday Night) Nashua Summer Concert, Greeley Park, Nashua, 7 pm for 1 ½ hours
• Jul 6 (Sunday Evening) York Beach Town Concert, York, ME, 7:00 pm for two hours
• Jul 7 (Monday Night) M/S Mt. Washington, 6:00 pm for three hours Arrive 4:30 to 5 pm
• Jul 17 (Thursday Evening) Bristol Town Concert, Bristol, 6:30 pm for 1 ½ hours with no break
• Jul 19 (Saturday Evening) Wells Town Concert, Wells, ME, 6:30 pm for two hours, two 50 minute sets
• Jul 23 (Wednesday Evening) Fernald Park, Farmington, 6 pm for one hour
• Jul 24 (Thursday Evening) Greenland Town Concert, Greenland, 6:00 PM for two hours
• Aug 6 (Wednesday Evening) Plymouth summer concert, Plymouth, 7:00 pm for 1 1/2 hours,
• Aug 7 (Thursday Evening) NH Vet’s Home “Cruise Night,” Tilton, Pavilion, 6 pm, for two 50 minute sets
• Aug 8 (Friday Evening) Shirley Town Concert, Shirley, MA, 6:30 pm for one and a half hours
• Aug 13 (Wednesday Night) Merrimack Summer Concert, Merrimack, 6:30 PM for 2 hours.
• Aug 15 (Friday Evening)- Seashell Stage, Hampton Beach. 7:00 PM and 8:30 PM, two one hour sets
• Aug 20 (Wednesday Afternoon) Webster at Rye, Rye, 11:30 am
• Aug 20 (Wednesday Evening)- Milford Town Concert, Milford, 7 PM for one and a half hours (no break)
• Aug 23 (Saturday Night) Wolfeboro Town Concert, Wolfeboro, 7:00 pm for two hours,
• Sep 5 (Friday Evening) Good Sam Club, Fryeburg, ME, Begin about 7:45 pm for two hours with no break
• Sep 12 (Friday Evening) Putnam Fund, Laconia, time TBD
• Dec 21 (Sunday Afternoon) NH Veterans Home, Tilton, Town Hall, 2:30 pm for one hour

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Temporary Employment

There is a trend occurring in the construction trades that will evolve in a short amount of time due directly to Obama care.That trend is for use of temporary employees. Constant use of temporary employees is illegal but most businesses use it year after year. The only company I have heard of that got hit with the law is General Electric. I can't find the reference online but they were hit hard by a judge with back pay and fines. The trend will become permanent meaning most companies and mainly large companies will only use temporary employees as workers and having the temp company handle benefits reducing the companies reliance on internal personal department = reduced over head cost. Most small business that can't afford health insurance and don't know about temp employee companies will not last long because they can not afford to attract employees because of not being able to offer insurance. This is the "mom and pop" operations. In time larger companies will also use this temp service when they need new help and not hire regular employees. This goes on now but will get to a point were companies in general will not have employees of there own but solely use temporary help as workers.I don't know if this is good or bad but in the construction industry it makes sense to use companies that have a "pool" of trained personal to use when you have work and relieve the stress on companies to find work for their staff and laying off people, and the costs associated with the both. Again what will occur is the business itself will only be a management company with minimum employees. With the trades this will be good for the worker and not a negative. Supply and demand will dictate pay and not the current system of pay raises every year as an automatic. The reason this will be good for the next 20 years is that "the baby boomer" generation is retiring and the supply of available workers in the trades will dry up. The pay increase curve will rise with a supply and demand model and you will make more than the yearly raise model. At about 20 years the word will get out to the general public that its worth working hard for a living again, the current rumor is that its not worth working hard for a living and can make the same or more out side of the construction trades. This is currently reversing. President Obama has ignored a health care system that works for all citizens which is done in Canada. in Canada every body is covered regardless of employment status, sounds like the correct way don't it? Small businesses can not afford to pay for health insurance for it's employees. Obama care forces the working class to seek out employers who offer health care insurance, other wise be subject to fines for not having it. You don't hear large companies complaining about Obama as president because they are fully aware of this trend with regard to small businesses suffering in the long term directly because of Obama care. The local plumber or electrician will cease to exist like what Walmart and Target did to the local retailer and what Home Depot did to the local saw mill. Is this a bad thing? It depends on your view, personally I like shopping at Walmart because I know I'm not being ripped off. Recently I went to a local retailer for a charger for my laptop that didn't work. I was happy with myself because I was going to shop at a small retailer here in Manchester, NH and support local mom and pop operation. Well they wanted $30.00 bux usd used and $40.00 for a new one. Generally you half a new price in the used market so I didn't buy it. I went to Best Buy and they wanted $44.00 bux. I went on Ebay and guess what? I purchased one for $9.95 usd with free shipping all I had to do was wait 3 days for it's arrival. Stay tuned....

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Red Sky Mary

Local New Hampshire band worth every minute of checking out is a group called: Red Sky Mary they have a bluesy rock sound that's worth checking out. Currently they are playing small venues that you will need to show up early to, to see them. There sound has massive tone and major league groove. The singer is also an instrument on its own, which is hard to find. I talk to one member to hook up with a club in Manchester NH, they were touring in every town but Manchester. listen check this band out if you have not heard of them and see them live in support...Dess

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