Congressman Earl Blumenauer added some new legislation to the $700 billion bailout that helps employers encourage bicycle commuting. The Bicycle Commuter Act of 2009 allows employers who sign up for the program to allow a fringe benefit of $20 per month for employees towards the purchase of a bicycle, bicycle parts or repairs.
Tonight at JJ’s we booked a Nashville band the Nobility to open a show for a band performing at JJ’s for the first time Eddies in the Wind. Unfortunately this was the wrong order in my opinion. The Nobilty are that kind of dancy power pop that the Nashville area seems to be producing lots of these days and they do not take a backseat to any of them. They might not have drawn in the crowds that How I Became the Bomb do but give it time, it was the first time they played here.
I found them on the Internet and tried to purchase a bike rack for my Forester. I thought everything was going ok until a week later when I had heard nothing from them regarding my order since I got the order confirmation email. On the site it “claims” they do not charge your card until the order ships. This was a complete lie.
After several emails to them and no response, I started filling out the web contact form. It was not until the 2nd attempt filling out this form some 3 weeks after the order was placed that I finally had somebody call me about my order. Finally, it was all going to be concluded.
Not so fast! When I got the person on the phone they informed me there was a mixup and the order would be an extra $68 but if you go to their web site as of this moment it is still the same price. The reason I went with these jokers is so that I could save a few dollars but it looks like I should have just stuck with the original online seller I was looking at Patrick Accessories. They were really nice on the phone when I spoke to them when I started this whole process and I just called them to place my latest order.
I guess trying to save a few dollars does not always work out but thanks Patrick Accessories for being a quality vendor.
September is lining up to be an awesome month down at my favorite club JJ’s Bohemia but last night did not fail to satisfy either. There were 3 acts lined up for the show last night, Chooglin’ from Minneapolis, New Familiars from Charlotte, NC and local favorites Christabel and the Jons from right up the road Knoxville, TN.
The starting act was supposed to be Chooglin’ but they had some troubles with the tour vehicle and cancelled. We will get back to them in a minute. So first up was the New Familiars. I did not get to see very much of them because I was trying to get caught up with all the other drunks and hanging outside with some friends. From what I hear on their MySpace page I should have paid more attention. They play a bluesy style of americana that plays to my southern roots. Having grown up in the foothills of North Carolina with a mom who loves the old country sound I can really behind the sounds these friendly guys produce. If you are somehow reading this I apologize for missing most of your set.
What can I say about Christabel and the Jons. They are so good at what they do and put on a great show. If you missed them you have another change on September 11th at the Breastal Festival. They will be starting early so get there early.
While Christabel was playing Chooglin’ showed up ready to play. It was late, they were having a shitty day so what better way to end it than rocking the socks off of the few remaining denizens and barflys left around awaiting last call and this is exactly what they did. I sure hope they come back because they really kicked ass. I am a sucker for horns in a rock band and the 3 members making up the horns of eleganza did not disappoint. They only had an hour to get the job done going on at 2:00 AM and I tip my glass to them, mission accomplished. Check them out below.
Well, the summer is winding up and I have managed to go through the whole thing job free thanks to the support of my wonderful wife and the money we saved up while I was working. It is now time that I get back into the spirit of working. To do this I am undertaking a project to upgrade the software that drives my hobby site indietorrents.com. This is a huge undertaking but when it is done it should create a stable, feature rich, template based bittorrent tracker system that others can use. I am still in the process of determining whether I rewrite the source completely or base my version off a stable branch of the most popular tracker software.
After this I intend to take a project I started while i was working and make it into a commercial project management software product I can sell to construction firms. This will be the real test of my programming abilities but it should also be a fun project and I am going to employ the help of a few of my friends to complete it. For this project I will be using Cake PHP a very nice PHP framework for web development.
I also plan on riding the annual Sequatchie Valley Century in October. I want to do the entire 100 mile distance but that depends on how much training I get in between now and then. There is one nasty (for me) mountain climb
I rarely if ever post about sporting events (or post period) but the performances by Michael Phelps at the Olympics in Beijing are truly astounding. 8 gold medals and 7 world records in a week. WOW!
Another event that I was blown away by was the mens 100M sprint which was won by Jamaica’s Usain “Lightning” Bolt. He simply destroyed the competition of the final easily setting a new world record while pulling up about 15M before the tape due to his overwhelming lead. I can only imagine the time he would have put up if he had gone all out until the end.
Thanks John McCain, you truly are a Maverick. Especially when it comes to completely cloning the Bush campaign methods to spread fear to undecided voters. So far I have seen you paint Barak Obama as unqualified to lead in the post 9/11 era. This seems odd considering that the current leader of our country has failed at absolutely everything he has ever undertaken and I am including his current job in that.
Now you are painting him as the candidate who is going to lose all of my life’s savings. This strikes me as really odd when you get to the facts of the current state of the economy. From my eyes my life savings are already going away thanks to the mortgage meltdown. This is the same meltdown that your chief economic adviser Phil Gramm was key in creating this mess by stripping all checks and balances and regulation from the banking industry helping them make record profits while putting hundreds of thousands of US homeowners hanging. Now that the profits are gone we are supposed to pony up the cash to bail them out. Not only bail out all these banks who made risky investments with our money but bail them out with absolutely no conditions attached. Perhaps you should kick Phil off the campaign trial and read some of William Grieder’s books because he seems to have a grasp of what is going on. If you really think that John McCain is going to be the responsible one with your taxes maybe this will help.
In response to your fear campaign it is not going to work. American voters fell for this in the past 2 elections but thanks to the catastrophe of Huricane Katrina and your pal George’s complete failure to respond the people have finally woken up. Perhaps you should take a trip to the big easy and see how all of our aid has helped them down there. Oh yeah, I forgot, you would rather not talk about Katrina in hopes that people will not notice that you keep voting against further aid programs to help in the rebuilding.
I am crossing my fingers that the culture of stupid that you and your republicans so desire is gone for good.
Go see Sasquatch this evening at JJ’s Bohemia. They rule. Be sure to heckle Blackie and Mike as well.
If you missed John Barrett’s bass drum of death the other night you need to check him out next time he swings through town. He really tore up the stage ar JJ’s opening for local rock act the Hidden Spots.
If you did not like this movie there is something wrong with you. Of all the superhero movies that they have made over the past 10 years this one is hands down the best of the bunch. See it on the big screen with digital projection. It looks amazing and the performances by Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart were stellar. All thumbs up from this fan.
I worked the door the last 2 nights at JJ’s and needless to say I am a bit burned out and my liver is a bit swolen. But this post was not started so I could complain about my almost perfect life but to urge you to get out and support your local music scene.
Thursday night the local band Bathtub Gin and Fault Lines from San Francisco played to an almost empty house. Fault Lines traveled a long way from home to play and nobody showed up to support them. This is a common occurrence way to often and what makes this sad is that their van lost it’s transmission just outside of Atlanta and they had to have AAA tow them up here. Jenny Bohemia had to drive down and pick them up just so they could play the show. It is this commitment from Jenny and John and the plethora of bands that play at their awesome club that make me love that place.
Contrast this with last night when a crowded house showed up to see The Bohannans rock a 2 hour set that followed 2 excellent opening acts. First was Caitlin Rose out of Nashville originally from someplace in Texas. She has an amazing voice that has to be heard in the confines of a music venue like JJ’s to be truly appreciated. Following her was Mississippi John Doude. John hails from the great state of Mississippi but currently lives in middle Georgia and plays some wicked one man honkey tonk country blues. Even though on this night he had excellent help on bass (perhaps he always does) he was obviously the man in charge.
What does this have to do with the local music scene? Good question! The health of a music venue in a smaller town like Chattanooga is driven by the local music scene. Many out of town performers want to play Chattanooga but since most of them have no existing fan base it is vital for them to get added to the bill of a local band that draws a crowd. Bathtub Gin who are a great band generally pull in a pretty good crowd but unfortunately on this night nobody showed up and Fault Lines didn’t fare so well when it came to how much they pulled in from the door. The Bohannans drew a great crowd and all 3 bands made some money. It is not all about the money either. If the out of town bands get put on the right show and people hear them play they are likely to see them the next time they come and hopefully will bring a friend. Bands like How I Became the Bomb (who is playing this evening BTW) followed this trend and now they headline the show and pack the house every time.
So get out and support your local music club. Buy merchandise from the out of town bands you like, buy lots of drinks at the bar and tip the bartenders well. But do yourself and come a bit early so you can check out those out of town bands who have come to your fair city to entertain you, you may miss the highlight of the night if you come to late.