Willard on Willard

SingleTracks is Released!

2011-10-22T16:56:00.005-05:00

After a long summer and fall of recording, mixing, re-recording, re-mixing, and mastering, Willard's highly anticipated sophomore effort "SingleTracks" is finally released!

Featuring 9 all-new originals and a live cover, the album showcases a wide variety of styles, from acoustic to electric, from folky to rocking!

Also, keep an ear out for special guest musicians Darin Rieland and Erik Sherburne!

You can listen to the album on the player to your right!

You can check out the album artwork here!

More to come in the ensuing weeks!

Get It Goin' B-side!

2011-09-12T19:17:00.002-05:00

Every good album single is backed by a B-side, right? Well, Get It Goin' is no different!

Recorded live in the basement of Syrinx Studios, Get It Goin' is backed with a cover of Warren Zevon's 1987 tune The Factory.

While the original is upbeat, I thought it would sound cool as a slower, more somber tune...

I did some unique things in the recording process, check it out and see if you like it!

You can listen below, at YouTube, over to the right, or on the Willard Facebook page!

Let's Get It Goin'!

2011-09-09T17:18:00.004-05:00

Alrighty! Here we go!

Here is the first track off my upcoming album "SingleTracks," to be released in October...

The first track is called Get It Goin' and is an energy-filled blast of sonic awesomeness. If it doesn't get you up and rocking, have 5-6 more beers and then play it at twice the volume...

That's me on the drums, bass, guitars, aux. percussion, and vocals. And that's the one and only Erik Sherburne on the rock organ. Bang!

Check it out below or on YouTube or at the Willard Facebook page!

New Album in the Works!

2011-08-10T11:51:00.003-05:00

This post is being posted mostly as a tribute to my blog's most diligent "checker", Jim.

"Holy shit! There's something new! Linnea come quick! Bring the camera!"

I have been working on a new album this summer... So far it is vastly different than last summer's in that it is entirely more electric and includes 4270% more drums (check the math on that one).

Drum tracks have been interesting and frustrating to record. I've not had too much trouble with getting the *sound* I want, more the press-record-then-walk-around-the-drumkit-and-play-along-then-make-one-small-mistake-and-then-have-to-get-up-walk-around-the-drumkit-and-stop-recording-reset-hit-record-go-back-around-the-drumkit-and-play-again kind of trouble. The iPhone app "Free Mouse" has alleviated some of that annoyance/time wasting, but it still takes a while.

I envisioned, at the beginning of the summer, an album full of 60s garage rock... As the summer progressed, however, I found myself branching out a bit more. There are a lot more varying styles, which is probably good for the listener! I've also consciously tried to make the songs short and to the point. (Perhaps next summer will be the 20-minute-long-songs prog-rock record)

I have the talented-yet-not-oft-recorded Erik Sherburne coming over to lay down some organ/piano tracks on a couple songs. Should be a nice way to add some variety. Hopefully he doesn't try to "Jazz-it-up" too much... You know him, adding 9ths and dim aug 11ths all over the place...

I'm hoping to lay down the final tracks soon and then finish mixing up before the start of school... But we all know how that goes. Last year I finished it all up over MEA break. We'll see.

But stay tuned for some new tunes soon!

Make Me Smile!

2011-01-17T13:37:00.004-06:00

Just a quick post for a quick recording I did recently!

I did a cover version of Chicago's "Make Me Smile" on my acoustic. The video was shot with my iPhone! Check it out below!

Track-by-Track: Sunnin' Myself on a Cold, Cold Day

2010-11-28T11:54:00.005-06:00

Let's take a close look at track #7, "Sunnin' Myself on a Cold, Cold Day"

This tune started out when I was taking a look at the old bluegrass standard "Bile Them Cabbage Down." I took the chord progression (which is a pretty standard one), added some 7th notes to blues it up a bit, and slowed the tempo down.

The lyrics came together after a big re-write. I had the complete song written out before I came up with the chord progression, so once I had the chords, I had to switch up the entire song. I was imagining a bright shiny day in the middle of winter, (perhaps because it was the middle of crazy hot July) and (as the title implies) the warm sun shining through a porch window.

I wanted the song to sound like it was recorded on a front porch, like it was happening spontaneously. So I recorded the main acoustic rhythm guitar and vocals together with just one microphone. The mic was a ways away from me and set pretty wide open so it would capture some of the room sound as well. I was extremely happy with the sound of that track.

After that, I tried my hand at the solo sections, but I couldn't get the feel I wanted for the solos. Perhaps it has something to do with my limited soloing ability. Perhaps. So I knew I would have to do some outsourcing on the song.

I enlisted the help of my father-in-law's good friend Tom. As an experienced guitar soloist, I knew he could come up with some great stuff to add to the track. After discussing it, we agreed we'd try a high-tech, internet-enabled, Garageband track swap.

I emailed the song to Tom so he could import the track into Garageband and do his solo over it. Then he exported his solo track by itself and emailed me that file. I put it into my original Garageband project, adjusted the levels, and Bang! Awesome solo track.

I like the tune a lot, and I'm especially proud of the e-collaboration that allowed it to happen.

Check it out here on YouTube!

Track-by-Track: Until I'm Through

2010-11-03T18:12:00.004-05:00

Alright, here we go!

The second track (in chronological order) is "Until I'm Through"

Musically, the track was heavily influenced by the amount of Vampire Weekend I was listening to over the summer, which was quite a bit.

It's the "fullest" sounding song off the album, having a bass and drum track, as well as an electric overdub. And while some may say it doesn't "fit" the style of a mostly acoustic album, I say "Pshaw!" Instead, I see it as a peak or summit as Track #5, with the acoustic music on either side as leading up and away from it.

I was still in the "simple chords" phase I was in for "Days to Begin," so the verse is pretty simple, with more focus on the funkiness. I like the "riff-y-ness" of the chorus. It's rare for me to do a riff, and I think it turned out nice. A wah-wah electric lead adds to the funkiness, methinks.

Lyrically, I'm not sure what I was thinking about. A love that hasn't had a chance to come full circle? A wronged person who wants to forget but can't? No idea. I did flip the chorus lines around in the recording, I think the focus on the "until I'm through" line (in the chorus and in the title) tries to keep it from focusing on the "love" stuff. Keep that mushy stuff at bay!

I had a solo recorded with the same wah used in the chorus, but I'm terrible at soloing electrically, so I chopped it out. I think the song is better overall without it.

The drums are a Garageband loop during the verse, and then the chorus is just me using the old "Keyboard Typing" to play a bass drum, midi-style.

The acoustic guitar is the Hummingbird mic'd acoustically. Bass is my Geddy Lee Jazz plugged in directly to my Tascam pre-amp with minimal effects. The electric is my Epiphone LP Gold-top plugged directly in as well, with the Garagband auto-wah effect. Maybe a phaser?

Overall, I like this one. I wish I had the time/means to record the drums myself, but I guess that gives me a way to expand in the future. I'm thinking my next batch of songs may lean more this way, at least in arrangement. More full band kinda stuff. Electric.

Anyways, check out the tune here on Youtube: Until I'm Through

Track-by-Track: Days to Begin

2010-10-27T19:36:00.005-05:00

I promised to blog about each track individually, and here's the first. I figured I'd write about each track in chronological order, rather than album order.

The first song recorded was "Days to Begin," and I scanned in my notebook where I wrote the lyrics:

The idea for the music side of the track came from my good friend Pete Hemberger. He had sent me an email about how we should try to record songs that were "simple and clean" and used "C, F, and G."

I took his advice quite literally. Those are the only 3 chords in the song.

For the lyrics, I wanted to play around with the idea of setting out on the task of recording a song. (You could see this as a lyrical homage to "25 or 6 to 4," that is, a song about writing a song.) I had set a goal of writing one song every day this summer. That goal quickly fell through, but at the time of these lyrics, I had that idea in my head.

I'm a big fan of puns and the "dazed" vs. "days" in the lyrics vs. title I thought was very apt. I was extremely dazed by the idea of writing a song a day, and it took me literally days to begin the process of writing songs.

I quickly did realize that I had "overfill[ed] [my] cup" in song writing, but, like the song says, I kept "going on."

On the recording side of things, the song was a strange process. I initially recorded the guitar and vocals at the same time, with the acoustic being recorded with the built-in pick-up and the vocals through a separate mic. The vocals sound whispered because 1) I think it fits the feel of the song, and 2) I recorded this one really late at night while Emma was sleeping.

I went back recently and re-recorded the guitar track. I wasn't as pleased with the initial one when I went back and listened to it closely. Of course, Garageband (have I mentioned that it's the greatest piece of software ever created?) made this easy to do.

The outro guitar melody was just the acoustic recorded through the pick-up with a slight phaser effect on it. Nothin' fancy.

So now that you know way more than you ever wanted to about the song, check it out at the link below (I've posted all the tunes on YouTube to facilitate a better listening experience):

Days to Begin

The Album is Done

2010-10-21T23:54:00.005-05:00

After a long summer of recording, I've got a 9 song album finished.

Whew!

I will blog about each song individually soon enough, but for now, you can listen to the songs on the player to your right.

Also, enjoy the album art here.

Kubb-erific!

2010-08-17T18:12:00.004-05:00

Production has finished on the Kubb set started oh so long ago at Emma's birthday party. As you can see from the picture above, it turned out pretty sweet! Clearly a Grain Belt Kubb set is a unique thing. I believe I may have the only one in existence.

I am lucky enough to have connections (i.e. "King Jimmy") into the Schell brewery, so I was able to procure actual neck labels from Premium and Nordeast bottles. No drinking and peeling for me here!

Production started the day before Emma's 30th birthday. We wanted to be able to play for the party, so production stopped at the green/red and white paint. Recently, production restarted as various accent stripe colors were explored. I tried various yellows, but settled on the metallic gold. I think it matches the labels quite nicely.

Stripes were painted, then labels adhered. A couple coats of clear coat finished them off.

The king, of course, got a moustache in honor the "The King of Grain Belt", Jim Hautman. His guidance, advice, and materials were greatly appreciated throughout production.

Now all that's left is to play! It's a shame these things are gonna get the hell beat out of them!

I have more pics of the production here. Check 'em out!

A Boon to Rivers Everywhere!

2010-07-24T09:41:00.003-05:00

Just yesterday I recorded a new tune. I was sitting by the computer playing guitar (as I can be found many many hours of the day) and I started strumming a particular chord... Something clicked and I jotted down some lyrics about the recent flooding in my hometown of Webster City, Iowa.

A couple of overdubs later and voila! A new tune!

This one I did through YouTube, even though it's just the audio. I put a picture of the flooding over the whole song. I'm liking YouTube as it's easier to upload, does so in higher quality, and is easier to link to.

Enjoy the new tune, Boone River Blues, here!

Shared-Walking Implement Blues: (Co-Cane Blues)

2010-07-04T20:03:00.005-05:00

I have a new video! On Friday morning I woke up around 8, had a cup of coffee, and then said to myself, "I need to record something today." I've also been wanting to try out the video capabilities of my new iPhone 4. So I combined those two endeavors into one larger endeavor.

I chose Old Crow Medicine Show's version of "Cocaine Habit Blues" as the song to record. I'm not sure how it came about. I must have been listening to it recently.

I rigged up a phone-holder-dealie using a Gorillapod Tripod (which, by the way, is a worthwhile investment for anyone who has a camera) and a mic stand. Check out the pics of my camera rig here. I was fairly impressed with myself for figuring it out.

So I recorded video of the guitar, banjo, drum, and solo tracks. Then I went back and did a take lip syncing to the vocals (much to the dismay of Emma, she does not like my lip syncing, and I apologize to her) - Then I put all the video into Final Cut Pro, matched it up with the audio that I mixed together in Garageband, and chopped it all together.

I think it turned out pretty good. Not too shabby for a couple hours of work on a Friday morning!

Enjoy the video here! It's on Youtube (so I could share it in HD). I'm in the big time now. Leave a comment on the Youtube page!

Disclaimer: I, in no way, shape or form, advocate the taking, selling, distributing, whiffing, taking a whiff, smelling, or advocating of cocaine... Unless it's the 1880s and you want a soft drink.

New Git-Box and Recording!

2010-06-05T20:58:00.005-05:00

I have a new guitar!

Check out pics of it here!

It's a 2003 Gibson Hummingbird. It's awesome. It's clearly way too nice of a guitar for little old me, but I'll keep it for the rest of my life. It's got a pickup built in, and sweet vintage looks. I got it at Willie's American Guitars, with a great big amount of help from Pete (Hemberger). We checked out a lot of different guitars, some newer, some really old. We left, we came back. We told the guy, "Get the jokester selling the thing on the horn," and "I'll walk right now," and gave Stephan a hat trick.

I even recorded a new song with it! I did a cover of Shawn Smith's "Wrapped in My Memory," which may be the awesomest song about missing a friend that exists. The original was all piano, but I figured out the chords and did an acoustic guitar version with it.

I used the built in pickup for the guitar sound, I think it sounds really good for just only the internal pickup! It has very minimal EQ or effects on it.

Also a shout-out to Emma for helping produce the vocal tracks. She is an awesome set of second ears!

Check out the song on the player to your right!

Wild Weekend!

2010-05-26T21:55:00.002-05:00

Check it out!

I was driving home, and "Wild Weekend" by NRBQ was on the stereo, and I said to myself, "That sounds like a fairly simple chord progression, I bet I could figure it out."

So I got home, pulled out the ol' acoustic, fired up the Information Superhighway, found the lyrics, listened to the song, figured out the chords, and then hit the record button on my iSight camera!

So enjoy the Video One Take here!

One Take Coming Back!

2010-04-09T21:49:00.002-05:00

Today I felt like reviving an old standby!

I used my iPhone to record a One Take version of My Morning Jacket's "I'm Amazed"...

I also happened to capture the video of it in iMovie with the new iMac's built-in iSight camera, so I figured I'd sync the two up and make a video out of it!

FWIW, that's a Summit Maibock that makes an appearance early in the video, and notice how much more smoothly I play that opening lick afterwards... :P

Enjoy the video here!

Filming Day in Secondbedroomville!

2010-03-31T23:05:00.004-05:00

With the recent addition of our ridiculously awesome iMac:

I decided it was time to get back to some higher-level computer-doings... One of which is video editing. So the other night I shot some video of myself recording a cover of John Prine's "Wedding Day in Funeralville."

I recorded video with both the built-in iSight camera and a regular DV camcorder for both the guitar track and the vocal track. I imported the video into the iMac and edited it in Final Cut Express. Just wanted to get the feel for it again. Synced up the audio with the video and chopped all 4 video tracks together to form a semblance of the whole, if you will.

The song was recorded in Garageband per usual, it was just also recorded by the iSight at the same time.

Check out the video here!

Wreck of the Ol' 97!

2010-03-01T20:34:00.005-06:00

My latest recording is a new experiment I have been working on for a while. It's something I'm pretty damn proud of to tell the truth, both for the sentimental factor and the technical know-how and prowess it took to pull it off!

I took a reel-to-reel recording of my grandfather's bluegrass combo playing the ol' standard "Wreck of the Ol' 97", captured it, digitized it, brought it up to speed, and cleaned it up.

Then I chopped it, arranged and rearranged it (this was the painstaking part), and added a second acoustic guitar, vocals, and solo. Then I mixed it all together!

So the end result is my first chance to play and record with my late grandfather. Sadly, I never got the chance to jam with him on the banjo and myself on the guitar. The combination of my delayed entry into the guitar world and my grandfather's declining dexterity didn't allow us the chance to play together.

With this recording however, I get a bit of a hint at what it might have sounded like. :)

You can hear Wendell (my grandfather) introducing the song as "A little bit of the Wreck of the '97 in the key of G" - It features my grandfather's banjo, as well as (who I assume is) Chet and Danny Stubbs on flat-top guitar and fiddle. I added an additional flat-top guitar track, as well as vocals and an electric lead.

Enjoy on the player to your right!

Paranoid Android

2010-02-15T17:06:00.005-06:00

My latest recording is a cover of the Avett Brothers tune, "Paranoia in B Flat Major."

It's a great song and one of my favorites from them. It also features the banjo, so that's always a plus.

The recording was done in two sessions, one with recording a scratch acoustic guitar, main vocals, and backing vocals... This was back in October.

Then today I added the banjo, a better acoustic guitar track, and some minor overdubs...

I think the end result is pretty good! Just don't listen to Emma's backing vocals too closely, as she gets embarrassed easily...

If the Avetts stumble upon this, it was all a coincidence...

Enjoy on the player to your right!

Radio Killed the Victrola Star

2009-12-21T17:16:00.004-06:00

My latest addition to the reel-to-reel recordings is a two-parter on the player to your right.

The first is an excerpt from a radio interview my grandfather gave on KFJB radio in Marshalltown, Ia. I'm not sure of the exact date of the interview (yet), but based on the DJ's talking about Loretta Lynn's new hit single "One's on the Way" early in the show (not in this excerpt) it must be sometime in 1971.

My grandfather, Wendell Willard, and his country music buddy, Warren Riesinger (Not sure of the spelling on that) came on the show and talked about country music, their jam group that met on Tuesday nights in Clemons, IA at Warren's house, and about some recordings Wendell made.

The interview, I can only assume from some of the noises made at the very beginning of the tape (not included in my excerpt), seems to have been recorded by setting up the ol' reel-to-reel next to the radio and letting it run. The recording includes the interviews with Wendell and Warren, as well as all the songs KFJB played during the program that day. Flatt & Scruggs, Loretta Lynn, and Bob Wills to name a few...

The part that I uploaded today is a part of the interview where my grandfather talks about playing the 5-string banjo. I love the line, "The only background I had was the fanatic desire to learn to play a banjo and the great admiration for anyone who was able to play the banjo." Sounds like the way I would phrase an answer...

The second part/song is the tape my grandfather brought in. I separated it so I could do a bit different EQ on the song part than the interview part. I haven't found the actual tape (yet), so the quality isn't very good. Recording a song played on a reel-to-reel on a radio show by placing a reel-to-reel next to a radio doesn't lend itself to very high quality. I think the actual tape will turn up on one of the numerous tapes I haven't listened to yet.

Enjoy!

Dinosaur Victrola Listening to Buck Owens

2009-11-15T22:40:00.005-06:00

The next installment of my reel-to-reel conversions is another tune where my grandfather isn't singing, but is pickin' it up on the banjo.

It's a cover of "Heartbreak Mountain", which may be a traditional bluegrass tune done by many others, but I remember it done by Buck Owens. The version I listened to back in the day (and now for that matter) is from his album "Ruby" which has a lot of bluegrass tunes on it.

The cover is fairly faithful to the Buck Owens version, only it's in the key of A instead of Buck's original key of C. The singer forgets a couple lyrics on the third verse and laughs, but I think it adds to the jam sound of the tune.

I tried a little more intensive EQing on this one, and fiddled a little more with various digital doo-hickeries in the Garageband. I think the sound turned out really full sounding!

Check it out on the player to your right!

Two New Tunes!

2009-10-27T17:22:00.005-05:00

I recently found a couple gems on the old reel-to-reel tapes.

The first one is a version of "Rollin' in My Sweet Baby's Arms," which is one of my favorite bluegrass tunes. My grandfather isn't on vocals this time, but the song features the banjo quite a bit. You can hear the lead vocalist yell out "5 String!" when he wants my grandpa to step up to the mic and play a solo on the banjo.

My Dad has told me that the main other two guys in the group were Chet Stubbs and Danny Stubbs, a father/son combo on flattop guitar and fiddle. He also said Everett Whitmore was in the group as well. I'm not sure what he played. Perhaps bass.

The second song is an instrumental version of "The Ballad of Jed Clampett," better known as the theme to the TV show "The Beverly Hillbillies." It features the banjo pretty heavily and the mandolin as well.

I believe it's my grandfather introducing the song as "A little bit of 'The Ballad of Jed Clampett' in the key of G." It sounds like his voice anyhow. I'm guessing he liked this one because of it's feature of the banjo and for the fact that it was a Flatt & Scruggs song.

You can enjoy the songs on the player to your right! The other recording is still there as well.

Enjoy!

First Reel-to-Reel Digitization!

2009-10-20T17:01:00.009-05:00

I have begun the process of converting some analog reel-to-reel recordings my grandfather made with his bluegrass combo.

My grandfather Wendell, who passed away a few years ago, had given me a Sony TC-530 reel-to-reel machine quite a few years back, but I had no idea what to do with it. It didn't work up to snuff for recording purposes, but there was a stack of his tapes that came along with it.

I have no ideas when the recordings were made (I imagine late 70's) but they were made at my grandfather's house in Marshalltown, Iowa. I'm just in the stages of researching, but I believe it was a three piece combo consisting of my grandfather on banjo and occasional vocals, and two other gentlemen on guitar and fiddle.

Sorry, my grandfather can't hear you over the sound of how awesome he is....

I posted the first recording I digitized on the player to your right, "The Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee." I chose this particular recording because it features my grandfather on vocals, which is rare as he usually just played banjo without singing.

I have no idea whether this is a "good" version of the song according to them. There aren't really any notes on the tapes about which take is which or whether it's a good one. I haven't even listened to all the tapes, so there could be a much better version of the song on a different tape.

I just wanted to start somewhere, so I started there.

So listen and enjoy!

p.s. Nerdy info = I sent the audio out from the reel-to-reel into my Tascam FW-1804 through the line input, then used the Tascam to convert it to digital as it has a Firewire output. I captured the audio in Garageband on my G4 MDD PowerMac. I then had to send the .aiff of the recording to Audacity to speed up the recording. Based on the fact that the song is traditionally done in the key of G, I sped the audio up 17%, bringing the guitar and banjo into G. Then I reimported in Garageband, doubled up the track, panned them for mock-stereo, and did some equalization to eliminate some hiss. Then I sent it to iTunes as an .aiff, and converted it there to .mp3 for the web. Whew!

Last Will and Testament!

2009-08-28T17:13:00.001-05:00

Alrighty, enough foolishness...

My latest recording is a cover of John Prine's "Please Don't Bury Me"...

I customized some lyrics!

One take on this one!

Awesome!

New Funk Track!

2009-08-26T14:03:00.002-05:00

We might have a fine companion to "Wuzzat a Godd--n Alien" and "Fudge Parts" in "Funk For Funk's Sake", the newest recording completed in just under an hour....

Enjoy on the player to your right... You might need to get up and dance to this one...

Also, all lyrics were ad-libbed as they were recorded...

That's me on various acoustic guitars, bass, and vocals... Garageband on the drums.

Funk!

Willard in Chains

2009-08-13T11:26:00.004-05:00

My latest recording tackles a classic (so I've heard) Georgia Satellites song "Battleship Chains"...

I became aware of the song while listening to (Warren Zevon + R.E.M. - Michael Stipe) = Hindu Love God's version of it...

So I took a stab at it, and it's somewhere between the two versions... In style at least, in quality it's obviously much, much lower...

That's me on bass, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, vocals, and harmony vocals... Garageband is on the drums... Sorry, I didn't go to Sherbie's to record a drum part.

My first stab at harmony vocals, so laugh it up!

Also, try not to snicker at my terrible guitar solos... I thought the song would be easy because of the easy chord progression, but the simplicity proved to be more difficult than anticipated...

Enjoy it on the player to your right!

Priney Goodness

2009-07-17T16:57:00.003-05:00

My latest recording (which you can find as track one on the player to your right) is a cover of John Prine's "Sweet Revenge"... It's a tune (and an album for that matter) that I've been getting into lately, so I thought I'd give it a shot...

That's me on acoustic, electric, bass, vocals, and drums...

Thanks to Sherbie for letting me come over to his place during the day and record a drum track using his brand spanking new (used) Premier drum kit he got...

The drum track was recorded with my Powerbook's built-in mic (covered with a couple layers of cloth and recording level turned way down) and the only adjustment to the drums and cymbals was a strip of painters masking tape on each...

So not too shabby sound for a shitty mic and not much set-up!

Enjoy!

Genie-Meanie-Veeny-Ceeny

2009-07-10T13:59:00.003-05:00

Recently I've really gotten into Gene Vincent, and so along those lines, as well as keeping in the recent pattern of alternating epic prog rock and 50's Rock n' Roll, I recorded a tribute version of Vincent's most well-known song "Be-Bop-A-Lula"...

That's me on acoustics, lead guitar, bass, vocals, screams, and a cardboard box drum...

Hopefully, after listening to it, Gene isn't spinning in his grave, and hopefully you aren't either...

The song can be found on the player to your right!

p.s. My first walking bass-line.... and yes, my guitar solos are ridiculously poor...

Oh You Tease!

2009-06-15T09:20:00.003-05:00

If you look to the player to your right, there is a new track, "Leviathan Teaser"... Pete and I are in the midst of a new epic tale (this one weighing in at 6+ minutes already) that is a sequel (prequel? (postquel? (epilougue?))) to "Crown of Cyruss"...

And while it's still a huge work in progress, I thought I'd give you a tease of what you can look forward to in the next track from "Minions of Lebanon"...

Check it out!

C'mon now! Hee-we-go!

2009-05-27T17:19:00.002-05:00

In the wake of such an epic last-post, this time around we go back to light and fun with a One Take cover of Eddie Cochrane's "C'mon Everybody"...

That's me on gitbox, bass, and vox... The bass was an overdub, but only one take, I swear!

Enjoy on the player to your right!

Crown of Cyruss

2009-05-17T08:32:00.002-05:00

A new epic tale has been told... Listen on the player at your right

Crown of Cyruss

Conceived, written, and recorded over a period of 5 hours, Crown of Cyruss is a new prog rock masterpiece from Minions of Lebanon, a band with a long and storied past. Featuring former members of The Bathroom Beatles, Two Dollars for Nyquil, Psychosomatic Apricots, and The Juan Mayhall Brewstakers, Minons of Lebanon bursts onto the scene with this epic tale told in 4 movements.

Song Credits:

Pete Hemberger - "The Magistrate":
6 String Classical Guitar
Lead 6 String Electric Guitar
Bass Guitar
Synthesizers
Drum Programming
Auxillary Percussion Triggering

Mark Willard - "The Oracle":
6 String Rhythm Electric Guitar
6 String Acoustric Guitar
Bass Guitar
Synthesizers
Drum Programming
Auxillary Percussion Triggering
Vocals

Lyrics and Music: Hemberger/Willard
Guitar Leads: Hemberger

Engineered, Produced, and Recorded at Syrinx Studios

Pete Hemberger plays Les Paul guitars, Fender basses, and Fender and Marshall amplifiers exclusively

CROWN OF CYRUSS

i.
Priests and fools and magistrates all bowed before his grace
But all the kings of the world cannot outlive their fate
The bastard child of great King Cyruss was forced into the throne
When misfortune struck our peaceful land and the boy child was left alone
As dark clouds gathered in the sky
Abdicated and removed, the throne was left... bare

ii.
I did not ask for this
Crown upon my head
This burden I will not endure
Your needs remain unfed

Take this crown
I do not take this crown

I'll run into the woods
Make a world my own
I've heard tales of magic Men
Who have no need for thrones!

Take this crown
I do not take this crown

iii.
The magic Man

vi.
The magic Man has taught me much
I did not know before
I will commence my journey home
And reign forever more

Take this crown
I must embrace my crown

I was a fool for leaving you
To suffer all alone
I realize my destiny
To take this holy throne

Take this crown
Yes! This is my crown!

Take this crown
This crown!

Villa Gorilla...

2009-03-26T17:27:00.002-05:00

Another One Taker from the iPhone...

This time I went for my new favorite song at the moment, "Gorilla, You're a Desperado" by Warren Zevon...

Yes, yes, yes, that makes 3 Zevon songs in a row... Third time's a charm... Trouble comes in threes... Three on a match is bad luck... Whatever. All I know is I like 'em. I have a couple songs in the vault that aren't Warren songs, but I'm saving those for a special occasion (i.e. I don't have time to record something for a while)

Enjoy on the player to your right!

Request #1 - Lawyers, Guns, and Money

2009-03-03T17:12:00.002-06:00

Check out the latest One Take Tune, "Lawyers, Guns, and Money," on the player to your right... Requested by the honorable Tom "Bones" Schutta... Two Zevon songs in a row, but where I come from, that's a good thing...

Spring Break!

2009-03-03T09:38:00.002-06:00

Whenever I hear someone say or read the words "spring break," I automatically think of this.

Why a 10+ year-old Simpsons reference is still stuck in my head is something for scientists to figure out and marketing execs to try and tap into, but I think it has to do something with rote memorization...

Anyway, this week is spring break, and although it's not exactly springtime, it definitely is breaktime... I was in need of a break (I think the students were too) so it came at a perfect time... The school year has been flying by, especially compared to my first year of teaching. I remember praying for spring break to come my first year, and this year it was more, "Spring break is next week? Really? Alright..."

I have no grand plans for the week... It's Tuesday and I've already accomplished laundry, closet reorganization, and a whole lotta sittin', so I feel that's pretty good for now.

Disorder in the House!

2009-02-26T18:52:00.004-06:00

It's time again for another one take iPhone recording!

This time it's Warren Zevon's "Disorder in the House" from his final album, "The Wind"...

Check it out on the player to the right! Only one take! I overdubbed the solo obviously, but that was one take too! And I suck at soloing!

In the meantime, it's almost spring break! If you have a song you want to hear covered in one take on an iPhone, let me know...

Rush in one take

2009-02-18T18:09:00.002-06:00

Who has the balls (or audacity) to try and tackle a 5 minute nerd-rock masterpiece on only an acoustic guitar and in only one take?

This guy.

So, having recently figured out the chord progression to Rush's 1987 sweetness known as "Mission", I decided to give it a go using my iPhone as recording studio as I have done so oft in the past...

I left out the solo section, as I had no marimba to play, and I realize that Geddy Lee's vocal range and mine do not have that much overlap, but I gave it a shot, and it was fun... There are flubs, but again, IT'S DONE IN ONE TAKE SO BACK OFF!!! If I had more takes, I could butcher it so much better...

The song appears to your right as the first track in the player... Check out the other songs I've recorded with my iPhone... "Glad All Over" and "Soldier of Love"...

Weekend in Ames!

2009-02-02T16:39:00.002-06:00

Recently, as in last weekend, Emma and I trekked down to Ames, Iowa to visit our friends Jake and Carrie... It was our first time visiting them, and it was a great time!

On Friday night we headed down to Des Moines to The Grand Piano Bistro and watched our friend Leeds play in a (friendly) dueling piano duet... It was a ton of fun! They played great stuff, and we took part in some audience participation, including singing "Bohemian Rhapsody" at the top of our lungs on the front of the stage...

Saturday we bummed around Ames shopping, had Thai take-out for dinner, played some Catch Phrase, and ended the night with a couple stops at the downtown bars...

Unfortunately our buddy Glenn slipped on a newly re-frozen sidewalk on the walk home from downtown and broke his leg! Yikes! We hope he's feeling better and that he heals quick! He was ridiculously calm throughout the ordeal.. just lying on the sidewalk calmly saying, "Yeah, it's broke... yeah... I heard it..."

Then Sunday we stopped in Tha Dub-ya Cee for brunch with the fam...

Tibial mishaps aside, it was a very fun weekend!

Check out some highlights here!

A New Tune!

2009-01-27T18:10:00.002-06:00

Check it out! I just recorded another tune using my iPhone and the "Recorder" app... Check out the player to your right, and listen to "Glad All Over"... I'm a sucker for The Dave Clark Five, and although it is missing the usual DCF drum bombast, I think it's pretty good for one take on a iPhone's mic... (I did do two tracks, but I swear to you, each was only one take)... This might become a new hobby... One Take Oldies...

If you have any oldies requests, let me know in the comments section...

Beetle!

2009-01-18T16:11:00.003-06:00

No, I'm not Sgt. Snorkel yelling at his least favorite recruit... I'm referring to the new car that Emma and I just purchased!

Check it out:
It's a 2006 New Beetle... We got a sweet deal on it! Certified used, still has 44k worth of warranty on it, it's got all the bells and whistles that could possibly be stuffed into it, and best of all, it's a 5 speed manual... Bang!

Check out some more pics here!

iPhone Recording Quality

2009-01-18T15:58:00.003-06:00

Recently, I and my wife, Emma Linn, came into the possession of 2 iPhone 3Gs... I cannot remember exactly how we stumbled upon these devices, but somewhere in our various travels in and about town, we found ourselves with these two new telephonic devices...

Since the internet is chock full of information about the iPhone as a device, I shall not bore you (to tears possibly) with the details of the device itself, nor any of the standard software that comes included therein...

One noteworthy note of note, however, would be an application (or "app", as the kids call it these days) aptly named "Recorder"... It's 99¢... It does what it says... S'got a huge red "Record" button, you press it, it records... Done...

But! If you're at home (or when you get home) and your iPhone connects to the wireless network, you can then sync the recording to your computer wirelessly over the network... Bang!

Also, the recording quality (if you turn on the high quality setting) with just the built in iPhone mic is outstanding... If you don't believe me, check out my solo acoustic version of "Soldier of Love" on the player to the right. That's only the iPhone mic, a quick copy to Garageband to stereo-ize it and an export to iTunes... Sounds good!

The Last and Final Amount of Malfunktion...

2008-12-03T17:22:00.002-06:00

In our set closer, we keep things rockin' with "Rockin' in the Free World"... Quite possibly our signature song, and a very last minute addition to this year's setlist... We just couldn't resist...

Still Yet Even More Malfunktion!

2008-12-03T17:06:00.002-06:00

Here Malfunktion tackles the recent Foo Fighters song "Long Road to Ruin." Enjoy!

More Malfunktion!

2008-12-03T16:41:00.003-06:00

Here's another song from our set! This time it's the classic "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream... The wireless mic cuts out a bit on the vocals, but I think the wailing guitars of Jolly and Vogel make up for it...

Time After Time: Malfunktion Live!

2008-11-23T23:41:00.003-06:00

Here's a video of Malfunktion playing at the "School House Rocks" teacher talent show this past weekend! We tried to rock as much as possible, and we were fairly successful to that end... Special thanks to my wife for the cat-calls at the beginning of the video...

Long Time, No Blog!

2008-11-23T12:13:00.002-06:00

Clearly it has been a while (if I wanted to, I could calculate exactly how long, as the date is posted on the last blog entry, but who has the time to do that... Certainly not someone who has the time to type out this really long explanation) since my last blog post, but with good reason. I now have a job that requires more skills than simply showing up and speaking English...

So I promise a fun update soon, complete with video... I just have to find a time when I am not working to capture said video digitally, edit said video, and upload said video... But it will be worth the wait (possibly not, but it's free and you're not forced to watch it...).

Munich Day Three, Four, and Five!

2008-07-18T19:46:00.002-05:00

Whoa! It's been a while since I've written a blog... I'm gonna group the rest of Munich together and call it good... Click on a day to see the pics from that day!

Day Three: We headed to the world's largest beer garden, then to the Nymphenburg Palace, and lastly to dinner at a restaurant where the waiter yell-asked how many beers we wanted... ("Bier! Two!...?")

Day Four: We toured Dachau's concentration camp, then went to the Hacker-Pschorr biergarten...

Day Five: We toured through the treasures of the Residenz, then headed to the Englischergarten, which is another huge beer garden!!

Whoo! Done with Munich!

Munich Day Two!

2008-06-24T21:29:00.002-05:00

Day Two of Munich involved us going to the Andechs Monastery, which is famous for (among other religiousy typey things) brewing really, really, really, really, really good beer...

We took the train outside of Munich about an hour or so to Herrsching (Which means, of course, Mr. Sching), then took a bus to the monastery... A walk up the hill later, we were looking at a really old church and wondering where the beer was...

Along with ridiculously good beer, they also had some really good food... Various parts of various pigs roasted or broasted or crispified to perfection... It was a gorgeous day, there was beautiful scenery, and we had good food and drink... All in all a great experience...

Then we headed back to Munich, took a nap, then got up for dinner at the Lowenbrau biergarten... If you're not sensing a pattern to our days in Munich yet, you may want to re-read the last post...

Checkout the pics from Day Two here!

On to Munich!

2008-06-24T21:09:00.003-05:00

You might just be realizing that I'm still talking about Europe even though I've been back in the U.S. for over two weeks... Well... Sometimes dem's da breaks...

So we grabbed a night train to Munich from Paris (which (by the way) I highly recommend over flying between or bussing between cities (You can sleep pretty easily on the couchette/bunk bed thing they have)) and arrived in Munich at 9am or so. Quite awesomely, our hotel already had our awesome room ready already, the guy at the front desk had awesomely awesome English skills, and the elevator (unlike Paris) was bigger than an awesome breadbox... We showered up, then headed out into the Munich streets...

We were within walking distance of the Marienplatz so we headed there and found the Augustiner Bierhaus, ate various sausages with kraut, mustard, and potatoes, then walked around some more... Then to Paulander for a beer, then a nap at the hotel, then off to the Augustiner Biergarten for dinner and beer... Yum!

Check out the pics from Day One here!

The Rest of Paris!

2008-06-17T14:18:00.001-05:00

I uploaded the rest of the Paris pics! Check out Day Three, Four, and Five! Whoo!

Paris Day Two!

2008-06-11T10:30:00.001-05:00

Again I'm feeling a little bit lazy, so I don't feel like writing a ton about Day Two (The captions on the photos take care of most of the highlights anyway...) so check out pics from Day Two here!

Paris Day One!

2008-06-08T13:18:00.002-05:00

I don't really feel like writing an entire post about our first day, so I'll just link to the pics from Day One... Check them out here!

We're Home!

2008-06-08T13:14:00.004-05:00

We're baaaaaaack! We arrived in Minneapolis last night at about 5:25 pm, and were greeted by Emma's parents, The Brothers Sherburne, and The Ladies Alwy... We were exhausted, but managed to stay awake long enough to eat some yummy snacks and then hit the hay...

I'm off to Chicago tomorrow for the Rush concert, Emma meanwhile will chill... However, I'm skipping a lot of stuff, as we were in Paris and Munich for the past 2 weeks... So I'll pause the current news and post about that old news...

Hello Goodbye Hello Goodbye...

2008-05-26T07:17:00.002-05:00

With the full realization not yet sinking in, Emma and I have packed up and are ready to leave Japan tomorrow morning! Our flight leaves Osaka at 9:40 am, which means we'll be leaving our apartment in Akashi at about 5:00 am or so... We're sad to go, but excited for our trip home, which has us going through Europe. We're spending 5 days in Paris and 5 days in Munich, and will arrive back in Minneapolis on June 7th! It seems like only yesterday I was writing about packing our stuff and describing my first experiences and impressions...

We really enjoyed our experience over here in Japan, and are going to miss our friends and favorite students! We are looking forward to seeing all of our friends and family back in the U.S.! It might be a while until we are able to email or blog again (the next blog might be about being back in the states) but we'll be taking tons of pictures in Europe! Also, our Vonage phone will probably be going straight to voicemail for a while as well, but you can still leav eus messages as we get them by email!

And don't think that just because I'm not in Japan that this blog will be discontinued... Oh no no no... You obviously don't remember the first month's worth of blog posts that had absolutely nothing to do with Japan...

Alrighty! As a wonderfully satirical cartoon dog once said, "Catch ya' on the flip side dudemeisters!"

Catch you later!

R.I.P. Silver Bullet II

2008-05-22T21:11:00.005-05:00

I recently lost a good friend of mine... My trusty steed I liked to call Silver Bullet II (The Original Silver Bullet was, of course, my 2003 Pontiac Grand Am) has been stolen... While the timing of the robbery was pretty good (it happened with only 5 days left in Japan) it was nevertheless a sudden and profound shock to my trusting and naive brain... I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye...

Here's a photo tribute to my lost friend:

Hiroshima and Miyajima!

2008-05-18T21:06:00.005-05:00

Last weekend Emma and I headed down to Hiroshima and Miyajima for a day trip. Hiroshima is famously known as one of the cities on which an atomic bomb was dropped during World War II, and Miyajima (which is a nickname meaning "Shrine Island", the actual island name is Tsukushima) is famous for its "Floating Torii" which is one of the Three Views of Japan.

We started the day at Miyajima, took a lot of pictures of the torii and the shrine, and enjoyed the beautiful weather! The tide was a little low, but it still was very picturesque...

We then headed back to Hiroshima and went to numerous memorials and a museum dedicated to the atomic bombing. The preserved "A-Bomb Dome" is the only building that survived the bombing that was close to the hypnocenter. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park has lots of different memorials in it. We took some time to visit them all, then went to the museum.

I was really impressed with the museum. It did a great job of showing Hiroshima before, during and after the war, it also did a good job of trying to explain why the U.S. chose to drop the bomb. The tone was very neutral, which I respected a lot... It also had exhibits about the dangers of nuclear weapons in general, which was also a good idea...

All in all a fun and reflective day. Check out the pics here.

Tokyo!

2008-05-18T20:57:00.005-05:00

A couple weeks ago Emma and I went to Tokyo! (Yes, I know I'm falling behind, but I'm busy so BACK OFF!)

Emma wrote a blog about it here, and the pics can be found here and here! Enjoy!

New Tuneage!

2008-05-01T08:27:00.004-05:00

Check out the Reverbnation player to the right! ----------------->>>>>>>

A recently remastered version of a 2007 live, unrehearsed performance of "Route 66" recorded at Hautman Studios in New Prague, Mn has just been made available...

This homage to the raw, unpolished rock of such albums as "Exile on Main Street" and "Vs." features the vocal and improvisational prowess of Tom "Tommy" Teorey on electrically amplified guitar, the competent musicianship of Mark "Take It Mark" Willard on acoustical guitar, and the bewildered drumming of Erik "Sherbie" Sherburne on acoustic drums and cymbals... The pure raw energy of the one-time, unrehearsed performance is fully captured in the gritty recording production style of Hautman studios... Enjoy!

Birthday Party!

2008-04-23T07:27:00.002-05:00

On Sunday (my birthday) we had a party in Akashi Park (for my birthday)! It was a good night (because it was my birthday) of drinking, fun, and relaxing! After the park party (which was for my birthday) we went bowling at Futaba Bowl (for my birthday)... Joe came down from Omihachiman (for my birthday) for the weekend (of my birthday) which was really cool. We spent the rest of the weekend (of my birthday) recovering (from my birthday party) and chilling in Akashi... Check out the pics (from my birthday) here!

We're Good!

2008-04-23T07:26:00.001-05:00

We are set for food and care packages! Thanks to all of you who sent them, they were sooooooo appreciated! You have no idea how much it helped us when we craved some good ol’ American food! Please refrain from sending any more food as we have plenty to last us the last month that we are here!

Do the Toshi!

2008-04-16T21:52:00.004-05:00

A new dance craze is about to sweep the nation... Everyone...
Do the Toshi!

Remember you saw it here first!

Yet Another Tigers Game?!?!

2008-04-16T10:39:00.004-05:00

Seriously... Am I becoming a baseball fan? I guess so... At least in Japan... On Tuesday, Emma and I went to a Hanshin Tigers game at the famous Koshien Stadium near Osaka... Accompanying us were Toshi (our crazy Japanese friend), Daniel (our crazy American expatriate friend), Akiko (our crazy Japanese friend), and Mayumi (Akiko's crazy Japanese friend)... The game was another good one, with Hanshin winning 5-0! I am definitely good luck for the Tigers, as they have gone 2-0 when I attend their games with a combined score of 12-0! Anyways, the game and after-party are best summed up in pictures! Check 'em out!

New Tuneage!

2008-04-03T02:55:00.003-05:00

Check out the ReverbNation player to the right!! -------------->

A recently remastered version of a 2007 live performance of "For What It's Worth/Love Theme From Mst3k" recorded at Hautman Studios in New Prague, Mn has just been made available...

This 8+ minute epic highlights the improvisational prowess of Tom "Tommy" Teorey on electrically amplified guitar, the steady foundation of Jim "Jimmy" Hautman on electrified bass, and the competent musicianship of Mark "Take It Mark" Willard on acoustical guitar and "what could be called" vocals...

Check it out!

Tigers game!

2008-04-02T08:48:00.004-05:00

On Sunday, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a Hanshin Tigers baseball game in Osaka... Like I have blogged before, baseball in Japan is a lot more exciting to watch than baseball in the U.S. (or at least in Minneapolis)... The crowd basically cheers the entire time, as illustrated in this following video:

Let me be perfectly clear.... The cheering illustrated in the above video happens for every player, regardless of situation. I believe the cheering going on in that video was a 2nd inning batter who had no one on base... So yeah, every batter has their own song, which, it seems, every fan has memorized...

The game was at the Kyocera Dome Osaka, which looks like a giant takoyaki ball... We did the traditional "Incognito Beer Sneak" with some cheap beers we got at a convenience store right across the street from the Dome, and I searched in vain for a hot dog that came with a bun, but they only had wieners on a stick... Oh well...

The Tiger crushed the Yokohama Bay Stars 7-0, so it was a really exciting game to watch! Check out the pics here!

Our Couch!

2008-03-27T10:18:00.005-05:00

A quick search on Google Maps for 632 Adams St. NE, a click on "Street View", a little rotation, a little moving north, and what do we see?
When Emma and I moved out, we put the couch out on the curb with a "Free" sign on it... I guess no one took it for a while! Sherbie swears it was still there in September... Whoops!

Beijing Part 4! (And Hopefully the Last Part)

2008-03-27T02:56:00.005-05:00

So the final full day we had in Beijing was very chill... We started out by heading to the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong (or Mao-soleum, as I like to call it) which is located in Tiananmen Square... Why? Well to make sure he's still dead of course!

I think we were the only Westerners in line to go through and see Mao's body... We had to check our bags and cameras before we could enter the Mao-soleum, so we weren't able to take any pics of good ol' Dongy (my pet name for him) but here's a frame from a Simpsons episode to give you a feel for what it's like...

Of course Mao-mo was behind various thicknesses of bulletproof glass and various degrees of waxy fake face material, but basically it's the same... Not sure if the hammer and sickle was there...

When we entered the actual building of the Mao-soleum, it was absolutely silent... And we were hurried through very quickly, with only about 30 seconds or so of actual look-a look-a time... And then, horrendously ironically, the room right after Mao's body was a huge Capitalist-esque gift shop where you could by all the Mao branded merch you could want! Mao commemorative plate? Sure! Mao lamp? Yeah! Mao silver medal thingy? Why not! I didn't have enough time to study Mao closely while we were hurried through the tomb, so I couldn't tell if he was in fact spinning in his grave...

After checking out Ol' Dongy, we headed to the Jingshan, which must be Chinese for "Big Hill Made Out Of the Rock Dug Up To Make The Moats Around The Forbidden City"... There's a couple cool shrines on top of it, and it offered us a bird's eye view of Beijing (if that bird had glaucoma) and of the Forbidden City...

After that we headed north to the HouHai area, which sounds naughty but in reality is just a bunch of restaurants and bars around a small lake... We had lunch at a really good restaurant, and even got to have authentic Chinese lettuce wraps (Take that P.F. Changs!)...

After lunch we headed around the lake and, between fending off rickshaw offers, were able to check out a local festival of some sort... Some guy rocking out with traditional Chinese instruments... Then we made our way back to the hotel, Emma and I took a nap, we got pizza again for dinner, and got price-gouged on some beers!

And so wrapped up our stay in Beijing... A nice place to visit and a covertly oppressive place to live! Our final day consisted of breakfast buffet, a ride to the airport with Shoe-Tran, and a flight back to Japan! Whoo!

So ends my blogging about Beijing... Which is good, because I'm running out of witty Communist and smog quips...

Beijing Part 3!

2008-03-18T21:30:00.006-05:00

Day 3 in Beijing started with the obligatory pile of bacon and French Toast at the breakfast buffet... After consuming mass quantities of said breakfast stuffs (and washing it down with copious amounts of expresso coffee) we headed out into the Beijing semi-sun...

Catching a taxi in Beijing is ridiculously easy, as they are everywhere... And they all are pretty new Volkswagons (which is German for "People Wagon") or Hondas (which is Japanese for "Small Car That Will Never Break Down") and are ri-donk-ulously cheap... I'm talking 10 RMB for a 3 km ride... (I know there are at least two things in that sentence that you don't understand...) Or, to convert to Americanizalistic measurements, $1.41 for 1.86411 miles... Which, when you split it 4 ways, is pretty damn cheap...

We took a taxi to The Temple of Heaven, where the Emperor used to make prayers and thank the gods n' stuff... It was pretty cool, and, like everything in Beijing, contained large open stone and concrete areas... There were two large temples, and then an open air altar at the south side... Pretty cool...

After T.T.O.H, we decided it would be a fabulous idea to walk back to Tiananmen Square through a fabulous shopping street that we saw on our tourist map... However, after walking for a couple kilometers (approx. 1.242747 U.S. miles) we realized that the shopping street was being either built or torn down in order to make a new trolley system... So instead of getting to do some shopping, we got to see some old timey Chinese neighborhoods, or Hutongs if you are in the know (and you now are), and a bunch of "tored-up" houses making way for the soon arriving trolley system...

We then visited Tiananmen Square again at our leisure, rather than having Shoe-Tran tell us we have 10 minutes to soak it in... Just kinda chillin' at the Square... Not promoting democracy or free markets or anything... Not standing in front of tanks... Just chillin'... Nothing to see here... Move along police officers... Keep marching Chinese soldiers...

You definitely felt the police and military presence while there... And I would venture to say I also felt the need to keep a low profile... Not that I was spouting Capitalist propaganda or anything...

But there were tons of Chinese people just hanging out in the square too... Kids flying kites, people having a picnic, people reading... So it's really a public square, but one that is under the watchful eye of the police...

After round two of Tiananmen, we headed back to the hotel, but not before picking up some more Tsingtao beers... We decided that since Beijing had an American style Pizza Hut, that we'd order pizza for dinner... The ordering process was pretty intense, what with "Pieces" and "Pizzas" sounding almost exactly alike to the Chinese ear, but we managed to get 3 pepperoni pizzas... It had been a long time since I had American style pizza, so it was a welcome treat... (Japanese style Pizza Hut pizza looks like this crazy hot mess...)

So ended our second full day in Beijing, eating Pizza Hut and drinking Tsingtao... Awesome! Check out the pics here!

Beijing Part 2

2008-03-09T06:30:00.008-05:00

I realize this is taking a while... But when you think it took Swift at least 5 years to write Gulliver's Travels, then it's not so bad...

So after the Forbidden City, we headed toward The Great Wall, which is about an hour's drive north of Beijing, and made a brief (or not so brief) stop at a jade "museum"... Curiously, this "museum" had quite a few pieces of jade for sale... Hmm....

Anyway, Emma bought a very nice jade ring (which was promptly destroyed a week later by an errant high five and a smooch with a Tungsten Carbide wedding band during a post-strike bowling celebration) and Joe bought a "Happy Family Jade Ball" which is a ball with several independent layers carved out of a single piece of jade... S'cool...

On our way to the The Great Wall, our bus stopped at a really touristy souvenir shopping mall for lunch... Curiously, whenever we had no control over our own transportation, the tour bus kept taking us to shopping areas... Hmm...

Lunch was good... It was a variety of family style Chinese dishes on a lazy susan... They also gave us a free bottle of what can best be described as "The Worst Tasting Alcohol That Has Ever Existed In The History Of Mankind"... I know what you're thinking... No, it wasn't a bottle of Paramount Rum, it was some horrific turpentine-y terribleness... Perhaps it was liquidized Beijing smog... No idea... All's I know is we didn't even drink it when it was free and I will never drink it again...

After lunch, we curiously had about an hour before the bus was going to be back to pick us up... Hmm... An hour to kill in a huge souvenir store... Hmm.... I wonder what we were supposed to do... Hmm....

After aimlessly walking around the souvenir shop wishing they sold Snickers bars, we were finally on our way to The Great Wall...

After walking on The Great Wall, I think a more befitting moniker would be "The Tall Walkway Where Souvenir Vendors Constantly Annoy You And Slowly Destroy China's Cultural Heritage"... The less said about The Great Wall, the better... Ask me sometime when I've had a few beers and I'll recount the tale much like I do with the "Ding Dong, Willard's Dead" story... Right now all thinking about it does is piss me off...

After T.T.W.W.S.V.C.A.Y.A.S.D.C.C.H., we went to a small tea shop and got a nice schpeal about the different kinds of tea in China, and how they are properly made and drank... And then made our way to a Peking Duck dinner... Yum!

The dinner was good! Lots of different dishes with a variety of tastes... Again, they were served family style and on a lazy susan... We shared our dinner table (as we had done at lunch) with 4 Japanese college guys who were in our tour group...

After munchy-wunch-wunching on AFLAC's spokesperson, we headed back to the hotel for some hotubbing, Tsingtao beers, and risque photography... All in all it was a very eventful day!

I realize this blog post is ridiculously long... Thanks to those who made it all the way to the end!

Coming soon, Part 3!

Beijing Part 1.5!

2008-03-06T06:50:00.002-06:00

So I left off on the first night we spent in Beijing...

Our first morning in Beijing we awoke fairly early and took full advantage of the breakfast buffet... It was a rare opportunity to have real bacon (Japanese bacon is neither smoked or salted, so it's basically... um... pork I guess...) and some delicious coffee... After breakfast we met Shoe-Tran (our Chinese tour guide) and headed first to Tiananmen Square for a few minutes... We spent more time there on a later day so I'll talk about it then... We snapped a couple photos and then headed on into the Forbidden City...

The Forbidden City is HUUUUUGGGEEEEE.... It just keeps going... Huge open stone floored areas separated by huge stone and wood gates... The Chinese really enjoy their huge open stone areas...

We made our way through the Forbidden City, taking some pics as we went... They also had some exhibits of old-timey jewelry, jade sculptures, and clothing... We made a quick pit stop at an art gallery for some tea, and then headed to the tour bus to head to The Great Wall...

And.... I'm gonna stop there because it's late and I just had to grapple with our Vonage router for about an hour in the middle of typing this...

Tuneage!

2008-03-06T06:42:00.003-06:00

If you look over on the right hand side of the page, you will see a new addition to my blog, which is a mini-player from my Reverbnation account that allows you to listen to some of my songs... The songs are all performed by me or by me and some of my friends or family... Check it out!

We Interrupt This Program...

2008-02-28T20:24:00.002-06:00

Let me interrupt the Beijing story for a second...

On Wednesday we had a "Sayonara/Goodbye to NOVA/G.Comm" party for Kristos and Faraz... They both are staying in Akashi, but got new jobs... We went bowling and then out for karaoke...

The night would best be summed up in photos... Here they are... Enjoy!

Beijing - Part 1!

2008-02-24T07:08:00.004-06:00

Alrighty! Emma and I have returned from our trip to Beijing (Or Peking... Or Peiching... Or Zhongdu... Or Peiping... Or a hundred other names depending on who was in power, or who was conquering, or who was recording the name) on Thursday. We had a great time, and definately saw a ton of stuff there!

In order to fully explain everything, and in order to not go crazy trying to write everything down in one entry, I'm gonna split up my writing about Beijing...

So we left Osaka at about 10:25 am on Sunday... That meant that we had be at the airport at 8:25 (2 hrs. early for an international flight) which meant we had to be in Sannomiya for the Airport Limousine (which is, in actuality, a very crowded bus) at 7:05, which means we had to leave the Akashi train station at 6:30, which means we had to leave our house at 6 or so, which means we had to wake up at 5:30...

In other words, we had to get up early... And we were tired...

At the airport we exchanged our Yen for RMB (Or Chinese Yen... Or Yuan... Or Gen... Or a hundred other names depending on who you talk to...) and headed to the plane...

We flew on JAL (Japan Air Lines) and it was a really nice flight... Only about 3 hours... We got the usual snack and drink plus a full meal! That was pretty cool... Also cool was the video monitors that were embedded in every seat... They had on-demand movies, video, games, and audio for free! It definitely made the flight go by faster... And more comfortable... One million times better than the usual NWA flight in The States...

We arrived in Beijing and met our tour guide, ShuTran (Or Shoe Tran... Or ShooTran... Or Sc hyoo Tran... Or TsuTuran... Not sure...) who tried very hard throughout the tour to talk to us in English, but most of the time just asked us, "Do you have to use Toilet?"...

We made our way to the hotel and checked-in, then walked to Wangfujing, which had less to do with wangs than expected, and more to do with name brand shopping... We went to the food court at the mall and sampled a lot of different Chinese entrees... I had some chopped chicken pita-esque sandwiches and some spicy sweet and sour peanut chicken.... Emma had won-ton ramen and some gyozas... But mostly we had some beers, which were super cheap and delicious! Tsingtao is the beer of choice in China, a Chinese equivalent to Budwesier.

After our dinner, we wandered around some more, went to the Night Market (of food) and then headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest...

Day Two will include The Forbidden City and The Great Wall... But that will have to wait as I am sick of typing!

Check out the pictures here... But DON'T look ahead... I'm watching you!

Whisky!

2008-02-13T08:19:00.006-06:00

So here in the Land of The Rising Sun, or 日本 if you will (and I will), Whisky is the drink of choice... When one goes into a bar (especially a fancier one) you are definitely going to see a wide selection of Whiskies, and a pitiful selection of every other kind of alcohol... It's a special occasion if they have more than one kind of vodka...

So recently I decided that I should give the old Whisky a try (although if you are a real devotee of all things Willard, you will recall a few pictures dedicated to Jameson Irish Whisky on St. Patrick's Day last year) while out at a fancy bar in Osaka.

Being the ultra-nerdy Rush fan that I am, I am well aware that Neil Peart's drink of choice is a 12 year old Scotch known as The Macallan. And, like any Rush fanboy, I blindly believe whatever Neil tells me to believe, so I gave The Macallan a try...

S'Pretty good... I bought a bottle at Costco (which, yes, they have in Japan) for only 3000 yen ($28 or so) and have been enjoying a glass after work every night this week... It's definitely something you have only one glass of in a sitting... I usually don a smoking jacket and sit in a large leather chair whilst imbibing said spirits, Beethoven's 9th playing lightly in the background... I peruse some gilded volumes of Shakespeare while slowly sipping...

Alright, in actuality I drink it while sitting on a mattress that's laid on the floor of our living room while watching CSI: Las Vegas and reading RSS feeds of online comics on Google Reader... But the attitude is there...

I'm getting to enjoy it... Of all the Whiskies I've had, The Macallan is definitely the smoothest and tastiest... (Is it uncouth to use the word "tastiest" when speaking about Scotch? Perhaps "yummiest" would be better...? "Yummy-nummy-in-my-tummy"....? We'll see...) But I'd like to give some others a try...

Any other Scotch or Whisky drinkers out there with a recommendation?

Osaka!

2008-02-05T07:31:00.000-06:00

Recently, Emma and I went to Osaka to meet up with Joe and Tiff and head on over to the Chinese Consulate to apply for visas to visit China. We're planning on going to Beijing on Feb. 17th so we needed to get a move on!

And of course, no trip to Osaka would be complete without a stop at the Shinsaibashi Apple Store (which may be the retail store I've visited the most while I've been in Japan... With the exception of Uni-Qlo) and Amerikamura (which is always good for people watching...).

We checked the new MacBook Air and snapped this picture on one of the 24" iMacs (which I desperately, desperately WANT). Then we had a delicious pizzeria lunch and lots more shopping! All in all a good time!

Vote in the Polls!

2008-01-30T00:35:00.000-06:00

If you haven't noticed, on the right side of the screen... Just to the right of this writing, there is a poll... These polls are for fun and can be enjoyable! There's been a pretty poor turn out in the past couple polls, so let's get goin' on the voting!

Make sure you vote! And encourage your friends to vote... If you vote, you can click here, print out the picture, add some clear cellophane tape to the back, and wear it around all day! You have that right.... But only if you vote in my polls!

Google Reader!

2008-01-30T00:09:00.000-06:00

It's been awhile since I've blog about something I like rather than something I've done... So without further ado...

Google Reader!

Taking a tip from a technological genius (The incomparable Tom Schutta) I recently checked out Google reader... I mean, I already used Gmail (which everyone should... You do use Gmail, right...? Right? What's that? You use Hotmail? Oh yeah... I remember Hotmail... I also remember wearing flannel shirts and being full of teenage angst...) and Picasa (which everyone should... You do use Picasa, right? What's that? You use Shutterfly? Excuse me... *throws up in the back of his throat, then painfully swallows it back down again*) so why not see what Google has to offer in the RSS feed organizing department...

Being a person that reads several varying blogs and online comics, it was becoming a pain to check them everyday to see if there was a new entry... WELL NO MORE! Now I got all the blogs and comics I read entered in Google Reader... It lets me know when a new entry is written, and it does so just like my Gmail inbox... Bang! I can read the entry within that window, or click it into it's own tab... (You do know about tabbed browsing right...? PleasefortheloveofGodsayyes...) It's awesome and a great timesaver! It also makes sure I don't miss any updates! Which is sweet!

So do yourself a favor and check it out! If you already have Gmail (which you should, haven't we been over this?) it's under the "More" tab at the top of the screen!

New Coat!

2008-01-29T05:47:00.000-06:00

Emma is not the only fashionista in the family... I also procured a new outer clothing garment suited for frigid temperatures.... Check it out!

I guess I figured since I haven't bought a new winter coat since 1997 (That is not an exaggeration used for humorous effect (It was my senior year of high school (I remember distinctly because my mom and I shopped for it for a long time trying to get the perfect coat (Which, in my mind, was a "heavy" (As in weight ) coat like my friend Jeff's (Who was 7'19" so any coat of his would be heavy as it contained 46% more material than a normal coat) which I tried on one time as a joke) and finally bought 2 coats we put together to form a whole winter coat) which was in 1997) it truly has been 11 years) that I should pick up a new one, especially when I'm in Japan, which is known for it's winter coats...

So check out my warm (some might even say... hot?) new coat!

Party!

2008-01-19T23:19:00.000-06:00

On Saturday night we decided to host a party for all of our NOVA teacher and staff friends... It was an anniversary party of sorts, but more-so an excuse to drink a lot! Good times...

Check out the pics here!

Anniversary In Osaka!

2008-01-19T22:56:00.000-06:00

Emma and I took a small mini-vacation to Osaka to Celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary...

We found an ad for the Hyatt Regency which offered the "Touch Plan", which gave us one night in the hotel, dinner, a cocktail, and breakfast in the morning for 33,000 yen ($308)... Which was a really good deal considering the quality of the hotel and the food!

We went to Osaka in the late morning and went shopping in Shinsaibashi (with the obligatory stop at the Apple Store), had a crazy good lunch deal at a pizzeria, then checked into the hotel at 5 or so... We relaxed in our room for a bit (they had The Discovery Channel there, so we had to take advantage of it) then went to the Suntory museum IMAX theater and watched a 3-D movie about the ocean.... It was pretty sweet! Lots of cool sea creatures I had never seen before!

Then we came back for a drink, and then dinner! The pictures will describe dinner better than me talking about it.... It was good! Real good!!

The next day we had a wonderful breakfast and then took in the Osaka Aquarium... Such a huge aquarium!

Osaka was a great way to celebrate our anniversary... I'm thinking we might need to Touch Plan it up again....

Check out the pictures here!

Happy New Year!

2008-01-03T05:56:00.000-06:00

Yeah, to you!

Emma and I had a pretty fun New Year's Eve... It started with spending the day with Joe and Tiff and Tiff's Family in Sannomiya and Kobe... We walked around both areas, shopped, went to a sake brewery ("No tours today..." "Boo!"), ate at The Old Spaghetti Factory (Yes they have those in Japan...), and generally looked at various objects in front and to the sides of us...

The Ecksellbergners took off right around dinner time to go back to Omihachiman, so Emma and I were left with about 6 or 7 hours to kill before midnight... What to do, what to do...

We were really tired, so we decided that a good pick me up would be a few beers at The New Munchen Club (where one is able to do some munchin' if one desires)... We were both ridiculously tired... The first hour or so of our time at The New Munchen went like this:

*Yawwwwwnnnn*

*Stretttttttccccchhhhhhhhh*

But after 3 or 4 beers, we felt invigorated, so we decided to try and make it to midnight...

After New Munchen a while, we headed to The Hub, which is an English-y typey pub pretty close to the shrine (which was the ultimate goal of the night)... We had a couple pints, talked to a bat-shit crazy guy (I quote, "The IRS is illegal you know... Look it up on YouTube..."), and met up with our friend Akiko...

We then went outside to countdown the time until midnight... The shrine in Sannomiya (and, I can only therefore assume, everywhere else in Japan) opened at midnight, and people came from all over to wait to get in and pray for good luck in the coming year... And to eat Gyros...

We waited patiently for the shrine to open whilst being surrounded by thousands of people waiting patiently for the shrine to open....

Once the shrine opened, and we made it to the front of the mass to be let in, we said a prayer, gave some yen, grabbed a beer, and, I think, most importantly, ate a Gyro...

Good times! Check out the pics of the night here!

Keip/Sherb Visit Day 6!

2007-12-18T08:33:00.000-06:00

The sixth and penultimate day of the visit was a good one... Much like Day Two, Day Six started slowly... (Review the pics from the end of Day Five if you are forgetting why Day Six started slowly...)

We chilled for a bit in the morning, then walked around Akashi for a bit, heading down to the sea walls and looking towards Awaji Island and the Akashi Bridge... Saw the good ol' Tako Ferry... Good times!

Then we walked through the Akashi fish market, and then headed to Kobe for the evening... We had dinner (not really together per se, as our food was all brought out at different times) and then walked to see the Luminarie, which is a huge outdoor light display, kinda for Christmas, but much more-so for a memorial to the victims of the Kobe earthquake...

Then we headed back to Akashi and relaxed... It was the Keiper's and Sherbie's last night in Japan, so we just chilled and chatted...

Check out the pics from Day Six here!

p.s. There are no pics from Day Seven, as all it entailed was getting up and escorting our guests to the airport bus... Which, while emotionally riveting, does not provide a very compelling photographic experience... So... yeah.... These are the last of the pics from the Keiper/Sherburne visit... Enjoy!

Keip/Sherb Visit Day 5!

2007-12-17T02:27:00.000-06:00

Day Five and Stayin' alive!

Day Five was an eventful one as well... In the morning, I went to my English Cafe job that I do on Thursdays, and the rest of the folks joined me later for a little bit... I'm guessing it was pretty interesting for the Keipers and Sherburnes to interact with some Japanese people who speak English... I finished up the cafe while the rest of them went to Himeji Castle... I've seen it a couple times, so I was fine not seeing it again... After they got back we all got geared up for a night of Yakiniku!!!

The restaurant we went to, Gyu-Kaku, is quite possibly the greatest restaurant ever... 4200 Yen ($37) for all you can eat meat (various cuts of beef, and, of course, scallops for Emma) and all you can drink beer, sake, or cocktails for 2 hours... Good times!

As the pictures can attest to, the night was a blast... We topped it off with a round of bowling... Fun fun fun!

Check out the pics here!

Keip/Sherb Visit Day 4!

2007-12-14T23:53:00.000-06:00

Wow, already onto Day Four!

Day Four was a very eventful day... It was the most walkingest of all the days with us hiking all day...

We started out at Joe and Tiff's, but packed up our stuff as we were going to ahead to Akashi that evening... We went to Kyoto Station, dropped off our luggage, looked around, then hopped the train to Nara, where we spent most of the day... Nara is famous for it's ridiculously tame deer who greatly enjoy being fed small round crackers made of what I assume is ground up Chinese newspapers...

Also, Nara is famous for Todai-ji, which is a big temple and purportedly the largest wooden building in the world... It also houses a gigantic Buddha statue and a fun squeezin' hole...

We also walked around to some other shrines, some of which were more notable than others...

And after the long day of walkin' we took the train to Akashi, and ate dinner at Oh-Sho (which was so delicious we forgot to take pictures), and then headed to our apartment...

Check out the pics from Day Four here!

Keip/Sherb Visit Day 2 and 3!

2007-12-13T06:54:00.000-06:00

"Buh'Whaaaaa? Why are you combining Days Two and Three?" you ask...

Well, if you look closely at the end of the pictures from Day One, it should become clear that Day Two was spent in the midst of a large hangover...

There are all of 13 pictures from Day Two, and 23% of them were taken in massage chairs...

Day Two consisted of us sleeping in until 1 or so, recovering from Day One, walking around Omihachiman, having dinner, and going to a large electronics store... Good times!

Day Three saw us off to Kyoto. We went to Fushimi Inari (Big Place With a Lot of Orange Gates (tm) ), Kiyomizu-Dera (Big Shrine That is Built on a Cliff and Surrounded by Beautiful Foliage (tm) ), and "Japanese Covered Shopping Area #218409.23"... The autumn leaves were a'changin', even in December, which was nice... The guys even had Shakey's Pizza for dinner... Which apparently is a more common Asian dinner than American dinner...

All in all Days Two and Three were good... But oh, the best is yet to come!

Check out the photographic evidence here!

Keip/Sherb Visit Day 1!

2007-12-12T09:05:00.000-06:00

As you may or may not be aware of, The Keipers (Mark and Kate) and The Sherburnes (Erik and Kirk (They're brothers (Not Life Partners))) came to visit Japan last week.

They flew from Minneapolis to Tokyo on Nov. 28th (Wednesday) and stayed in Tokyo for a couple days before catching a Shinkansen down to Maibara to meet Emma, Joe, Tiff, and I. From there we stayed in Omihachiman at Joe and Tiff's apartment.

Since we have a ton of pictures that include duplicates from multiple cameras that need to be gone through and organized, I'm going to post one day at a time... So.... Without further ado, Day One:

The highlights of the first day of the Keipers' and Sherburnes' stay in Japan, or Day One as it will henceforth be known, included many highlights. Among the highlights was seeing our friends from Minnesota for the first time in a while... But more specifically, Day One included us getting settled in Omihachiman, having sushi at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, buying a ridiculous amount and variety of beers, drinking some of them, proceeding to an izakaya for more beer and food, going back to the apartment for more beer, and topping the night off with a spirited round of karaoke until about 3 a.m...

Good times!

I can sit here and try and tell you about all the events of the day, but they are best conveyed by an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. In another, possibly more simple word, pictures!

Check out the pics from Day One here!

New Song!

2007-11-24T20:33:00.001-06:00

I got bored last night and decided to put my new guitar to use...

Yes, I got a new guitar... "What? You have no job... Why are you buying a guitar? You are so selfish! Emma should kick your butt!"

Save it Critical McGee... The guitar was free and is of questionable quality...

Anyways, I took a couple minutes and recorded this song...

Beard!

2007-11-24T20:07:00.000-06:00

For the past 3 or 4 weeks I have (had) been growing a beard... As an unemployed male, it is a very common thing to do... Exhibit A.

But all good things must come to an end, especially if your wife is hesitant to kiss you because of them.

So, I shaved my beard... But not with out taking a lot of pictures along the way...

Enjoy them here!

Thanksgiving!

2007-11-24T19:55:00.000-06:00

On Wednesday Emma and I went up north to Omihachiman and visited Joe and Tiff for Thanksgiving... The Eckbergs generously shared their Thanksgiving meal with us. Good stuff!

We had all the favorite fixins as we would back home... Mashed potatoes and gravy! Stove Top stuffing! Corn with ten pounds of butter and cheese added! Dinner rolls!

We substituted chicken for turkey, but it was barely noticeable, especially when there's Stove Top stuffing to eat! Yum!

After Thanksgiving dinner we drank some beers and played Catch Phrase... Good times had by all!!

We have a few pics from Thanksgiving here *AND* here. Check 'em out!

My Nerdiness...

2007-11-06T05:05:00.000-06:00

When looking at this picture, the layman would assume that I am referencing the movie The Karate Kid... You might take a glance at the picture and think that I'm doing my best Daniel-san impression...

But! Oh ho ho how wrong you would be... Although I am wearing a Japanese style headband, and although I am punching in a very karate-y type-y way, you couldn't be more wrong...

The thought that was going through my head at the time was very far from Japan... The Karate Kid, while a great movie, is clearly not nerdy or esoteric enough for me... I was obviously doing a much more indecipherable impression (or homage if you will... and I will...)...

Clearly, I was referencing episode #404 of Mystery Science Theater 3000, "Teenagers from Outer Space"... A classic episode if I do say so myself (and I will...)...

During the episode, the host, Joel Robinson (aptly played by Joel Hodgson) models a jumpsuit lined with Gaffer tape... During the slideshow of poses, narrated by Tom Servo, Joel strikes the pose below, and inspired me to emulate him some 12 years later while I was in Japan...

I hope you now all fully understand the extent of my nerdiness... Thank you and goodnight...

Our Situation...

2007-11-03T22:33:00.000-05:00

So as of October 26th, the company that Emma and I worked for, NOVA, has filed for bankruptcy. As of now (Nov. 3rd) they are trying to find a sponsor to buy up all their debt and take over the company, but nothing has surfaced yet. Emma and I got paid in September for our work in August, but that is the last time we got a paycheck.

We had heard rumors that NOVA was in trouble, but unfortunately did not get any concrete information from upper management. The CEO continued to send faxes to our school saying he was sorry for the delay in pay, but that things would be OK. We found out that Nova filed for bankruptcy on one of our days off so we had our last day of work without knowing it.

This is sad because it leaves things feeling unfinished. We didn’t get to say goodbye to our students, and feel especially bad we did not get to say goodbye to our kids classes that we adored.

What is ironic is that the reason we chose to work for NOVA out of all the other English Language schools is because we thought it was the most reliable. It was the largest in Japan with over 300,000 students, and (at the time) had a great reputation. We learned a lot in our time there and met amazing people. We will miss seeing our students and staff every day!

DON’T FREAK OUT! We’re doing okay. We are staying in our apartment (which is a NOVA apartment) for as long as possible, as we haven’t had to pay rent on it. We’ve been job hunting in our area and in Kyoto, but it’s a bit difficult as there are about 4000 other ex-NOVA teachers looking for jobs at the same time. We’ve got a few part time jobs here and there to make some cash, but nothing full time so far. Cross your fingers for us that we will be able to find other jobs so we will be able to stay in Japan for the year that we planned!

We are healthy, in good spirits, and relaxing. If nothing else, our biggest problem is boredom. So don’t go crazy with worry about us, just keep us in your thoughts!

Here are links to some articles about our situation. It’s too complex to write and explain here, and it gets tiring to keep typing it in emails.

Wall Street Journal

Japan Times Q and A

Bowling!

2007-11-02T05:54:00.000-05:00

Last night Emma and I went bowling with fellow Nova people... It was the first time we've been bowling in Japan... And, like most things that are boring in America, it was more fun in Japan... Why? Here are a few reasons (besides the obvious Hello Kitty bowling balls):

1. BYOB - That's right, buy beers at the convenience store for cheap, bring them in, drink them, and the staff watches you and smiles... You can bring outside booze to everything in Japan... Awesome and cost effective!

2. Bingo! - Each team got a tic/tac/toe sheet with different pin combinations on it (just the numbers, not the names (i.e. Alabama Haystack and Eckberg Special). If you connected 3 in a row, you won snacks! And the combinations were not difficult ones. Knock down 3 pins on your first ball, and 2 on your second? YOU WIN! What kind of snacks, you ask? Takoyaki flavored corn tubes... Horrible? No... Everything tastes good when you win it.

3. Automatic Shoe dispensers - We should have gotten a video of this... A big vending machine that gives you your shoes...

4. No 50 yr. old guys with huge cigars bowling while playing poker with Hustler playing cards...

All in all a fun night! Check out the pics here!

Akashi Park Party!

2007-10-29T07:19:00.000-05:00

This past Sunday we took advantage of the beautiful weather and had a party in Akashi Park... A little touch football, a little ultimate frisbee, and a little drinking.... Or... Maybe a lot of drinking...

There was a good turn out, and lots of fun had by all!

Today, however, I am pretty sore from all the football throwing... My arm feels like Jello...

Check out the pics here!

Leopard Launch in Osaka!

2007-10-26T22:06:00.000-05:00

Emma and went to the Leopard release event at the Shinsaibashi Apple Store in Osaka on Friday. It was a great time, and we got to play around with the new OS for a bit, although the computers were all in Japanese... I made this short iMovie of the event... Enjoy!

Blue Wig!

2007-10-22T06:33:00.000-05:00

This one can only be described in pictures...

The less said, the better...

Actual Exchange from a Lesson Today

2007-10-21T06:33:00.000-05:00

Me: What's the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?

Student: In the morning?

Me: Yes. Right after you wake up, what's the first thing you do?

Student: I... I wash my tooth...

Me: *Uncontrollable Giggling*

International Beer Festival!!

2007-10-16T08:27:00.000-05:00

This past Friday, Emma and I took the train to Osaka... As you saw below, we went to the Apple Store... But also (and possibly more importantly), we went to the International Beer Festival Summit Japan Osaka Beer Great Festival Fun Time Happy 2007 (or something like that)...

It was held at the Umeda Sky Building, which, if you don't know, kinda looks like a big letter "A" or an alien spaceship from Galaga...

Anywhooo, they had a ton of different beers there to try... Most were 500-700 yen ($4.26 - $5.96) for a 500 ml (16.9 oz.) bottle... They had beers from a lot of different countries, but mostly Germany and England...

We were pumped to have some Oktoberfest beers, and a Hefe-weizen or two, as they are greatly missing from Japanese liquor shops...

They had a lot of entertainment during the festival, especially at night... A martial arts "play" where 4 people pretended to kick the crap out of each other samurai-style... Some R & B singers, a Greek (?) Guy playing some Greek guitary-typey thing (?) that sounded like an open tuned guitar but looked like a big ladle... Two scantily clad belly dancers... A flamenco dancer who look like she was super pissed (Always stomping a lot! Why are you so angry lady?)...

Good times had by all! We took a lot of pics, which are here... Check 'em out!

Apple Store!

2007-10-13T18:14:00.000-05:00

When we went to Osaka on Friday, Emma and I stopped at the Shinsaibashi Apple Store!

We drooled over the new iPod touches, marveled at the 2-story store, and also took this pic:

Heroes is a Mirror

2007-10-11T08:25:00.000-05:00

It's like what we do everyday...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TDpgW38KfHo

Tarumi Autumn Festival...

2007-10-11T07:18:00.000-05:00

While in Tarumi, Emma and I stumbled upon a festival of some kind... And it being autumn and all, we can only assume that it was some kind of autumn festival...

It started with us seeing two groups of men lifting up two ridiculously heavy portable shrines... Then we proceeded to the permanent shrine where there were a lot of food and game booths set up...

I got some Okonomiyaki, Emma got a Crepe, we both got some beers... Yep, beer at a religious shrine! How great is that?

I wish they'd have beer at the church festivals in Iowa... Shotgunning a beer in the confessional always makes me feel like an alcoholic...

It also made for some great people-watching... Japanese teenagers at a festival acting amazingly similar to American teenagers at a state fair...

All in all a good day and night!

Check out the pics here!

Akashi Bridge!

2007-10-11T07:17:00.000-05:00

You've seen it from far away... Now see it close up and personal!

This is as close as you are going to get to "Bridge Porn"...

Check it out!

Conduction Heated Unfertilized Chicken Embryos

2007-10-11T06:51:00.000-05:00

Well, when you say it like that... Sounds delicious!

Tell me this egg bake doesn't look delicious! Just try and tell me... I dare you!!!

I am not wrong about this!!!!

Costco!

2007-10-05T18:45:00.000-05:00

So on Thursday Emma and I went to Costco!

"Buh-Whaaaa?" you say, scratching your head in disbelief...

Yes, they have Costcos in Japan... 6 I think... There's one in Amagasaki (basically a suburb of Osaka)... And yes, they are like Costcos back home... A billions pounds of something bought all at the same time... Can't just buy one of something...

We went because they have some good deals on western foods, and have some western foods you can't get anywhere else!

We picked up 4 bags of tortilla chips (2 huge ones, and 2 "Hint of Lime"), a big jug of salsa, a football (not for eating), 2 packs of Johnsonville Brats (Bang!), a huge block of sharp cheddar cheese (yum!), and some sour cream....

Sour cream must be a delicacy over here because it's about $7 for a regular $1.29 32 oz. container...

All in all it was a good haul...