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[Sep. 24th, 2009|09:07 pm]
Paul D.
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Wow... I haven't been on here in ages. DAMN YOU FACEBOOK! |
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| From Yesterday's Times Union "Preview" Section 6/18/2009 |
[Jun. 19th, 2009|05:07 pm]
Paul D.
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| [ | Mental State |
| |  relieved | ] |
Here's a comment a guy wrote in the Preview Section of the Times Union regarding the recent Dave Matthews Band shows at SPAC. I totally agree and commend this man on his letter:
Here's my review. DMB sucks. I know this thread is meant to be a positive venue for fans but what about another view? I am tired of all the coverage this band commands when they play in the capital region. DMB is without a doubt one of the most overrated bands in history and certainly the most overrated jam band ever. Dave is boring and nerdy and decidely average in every way. The annoying voice, stupid songs, token dreadlock band mates, and Kenny G horns sounding off in the background are enough to make those of us who actually know what a good band sounds like puke. I actually feel sorry for the legions of ivy league, Starbucks drinking wannabes who flock to his concerts in the Audis their parents bought for them. They clearly wouldn't know a good jam band if one fell from the ceiling and landed on their lap. DMB is symbolic of the generation that worships them: lackluster, unoriginal, pointless, and self-absorbed.
- Chris
Now I'm not really a jam band fan, unless we are talking some 70's funk, but this dude totally hit the DMB "phenomenon" square on the head. This is a guy who should be making his living on the State Fair circuit and never, ever graced the airwaves. How he ever achieved the backing of the music industry shows how out of touch these record executives are. It demonstrates that with the right juggernaut marketing machine people will buy any shit fed down their throats. It's too bad that there are legions of better bands who never get that lucky.
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| Enjoy Troy! |
[Jun. 18th, 2009|05:09 pm]
Paul D.
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| [ | Mental State |
| |  annoyed | ] |
Looks like I got a parking ticket today in downtown Troy while I was working in the 4th street central office. Now, normally I would not complain about getting a ticket but this area of Troy is a 2 hour "Park and Shop" district. The only problem is that there's parking but no shopping. My co-worker called the secretary at City Hall and politely asked where all of the shopping in Troy was and the secretary said Julia's and the Troy Atrium. That's it! Uhhhh, the Troy Atrium has one store in it, CVS, and the rest of it is filled with state workers. The Atrium officially died as a shopping center when I was 18 years old. I am now 35 years old. So where is the shopping? Well there is a Dunkin Donuts, Post Office, Famous Lunch, I Love NY Pizza, Manorys, Lo Porto's, and a couple of Mom & Pop convenience stores in the immediate area but these are not places "to shop" at. You could walk a couple of blocks over to Tosca's, Sushi King, and Subway. Again, eateries are not places to shop. The Golden Fox? Oh, that's the place where the guy went out of business for stealing food. Where is the shopping? There is an Uncle Sam Health Food store on 4th St and that's about the only place I can think of to shop at. Also, there is a rinky dink Farmer's Market at Monument Square that I passed by on Wednesday afternoon. Aquilonia is good if you are a comic fan and there is the Night Owl news if you are looking for a porno mag served with soda and a pack of smokes while you wait at the bus stop. I won't mention all the bars because they are part of the night life. These are not attractions to lure people into coming to downtown Troy to do business. Do they wonder why the malls killed them? There is no charge for parking at a mall, no limit on parking time, and there are actual places to shop at as well as eat. (Not that I'm a big fan of malls or anything but the practicality of them can't be denied.)
Now, Schenectady has been going through a renovation of sorts in their down town but have the same problem as Troy. They too charge for their "Park and Shop" district and have 2 hour parking in effect there as well. Schenectady put a lot of money into redoing the streets and brought in some new businesses. This renovation money was ultimately paid by the taxpayers who are expected to spend their money at the places they subsidized to have built. One of them was "Bowtie Cinemas", a new hotel, and a soon to be open Starbucks. (As a side note, they kicked long time resident the Pizza King out of his building and moved him off the main drag to put the afore mentioned Starbucks in place.) Bombers Burrito also opened a location there and Jay St has some small shops. Problem is that no one goes to downtown Schenectady after the day hours. Neither does anybody go to downtown Troy after dark unless they are looking to get drunk or go shopping for prostitutes or drugs.
All in all the ticket reminded me of the failure of our elected officials to truly revitalize the dead downtown blights that used to be bustling before the dawn of the shopping mall. What should they do? Well for starters they could take a look at downtown Saratoga. They've managed to mix in local shops with big chains like Border's and Starbucks. You also won't have to worry about being bothered by bums and delinquent kids roaming the streets. But the biggest advantage they have? Parking! It may have 2 hour limits or meters but you are actually getting to shop there at actual stores. (I know some people will mention the racetrack but the season is real short and downtown is busy there even outside of the season.)
The ticket will be a drop in the bucket for me, a mere $20, but I think it really has a lesson to teach. What are your thoughts?
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| The Weirdest Van Halen Video Ever |
[Jun. 17th, 2009|07:32 pm]
Paul D.
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We got it all in this one. Midgets, a Samurai, a Cowboy, Tarzan, Napoleon, and a Transvestite.
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| Want to waste 4 minutes and 40 seconds of your life? |
[Jun. 6th, 2009|02:33 am]
Paul D.
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I actually like this song... ha ha...
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| It's official... Saratoga Winners struck by "Jewish Lightning"! (Apologies to my Jewish friends...) |
[May. 16th, 2009|02:01 pm]
Paul D.
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| [ | Mental State |
| |  sad | ] |
The owner of Saratoga Winners club in Colonie has been arrested for starting the fire that burned down the structure last month.
Akiva Abraham, 43, of Rexford, is charged with felony arson, insurance fraud and falsifying business records for starting the fire that devastated the building.
The rock venue was closed at the time of the fire and had not been open for years, but Abraham had obtained an insurance policy for the property based on a fraudulent mortgage loan, police say.
Forensic testing at the scene revealed accelerants in and around the building.
Abraham was arraigned in Town of Colonie Court and remanded to the Albany County Correctional Facility without bail.
article at: http://www.cbs6albany.com/news/starting-1263408-owner-fire.html |
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| Party all the time, party all the time... |
[May. 5th, 2009|06:30 pm]
Paul D.
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| [ | Mental State |
| | dandy | ] |
So I'm still trying to catch up on lost sleep from the weekend. It was definitely well worth it though. The past 2 weeks I've been working out in Syracuse. Though it sucks to be out of town at least the time is going by fast since we have an in town/out of town rotation going on.
Well last Thursday I came home from my 2 week tour and then Friday afternoon I was headed back on I90 again in the same direction with the Virus to play a couple of shows. Friday night was Ithaca where we opened up for Bella Morte and Ego Likeness at the Haunt. Luckily they had a private back room for the bands so we didn't have to hang out at the bar. When we got there the parking lot was full as their happy hour was still going with a Southern Rock cover band playing so we couldn't even unload our gear. At least it gave us time to eat dinner and bullshit with the guys and gal from the other bands. (I found out that the guitarist from Bella Morte, Tony, is also a hair rock fan. Nice!)
It was smooth sailing after that. The sound check went fine and our gig came off sweet as well. The crowd was pretty good with about 130 people there I think plus we sold a bunch of merch. All in all it was a good time and I was glad that we were invited to play it.
Saturday it was back on the road again, this time to Binghamton. We hung out there for the day and I took a quick snoozer in the hotel before we had to show up at the Voodoo Lounge. It was gonna be a big bill with 5 bands on it total. There was The Rabies, Suicide Puppets, The Wired, Death Maschine, and us. The Suicide Puppet guys were pretty cool and I bullshitted with them a bit before our respective gigs. We were up first so we went up, played a good set, and then got our stuff out and packed in the Escape so we could enjoy the other bands. All the other bands were great but unfortunately the event was poorly attended. There were probably 30 or so people there which was too bad since the venue was real cool and it was 5 hours of good music. Can't win them all!
So now I'm back in town just in time for a week of rain and trying to catch up on the sleep lost. Sunday night I woke up at 3 in the morning because of some really loud snoring. At first I thought there was another person in the room but it turned out to be Willy (my big cat). I never knew a cat could snore that loud. The guys doing my bathroom are starting on Monday or Tuesday this upcoming week. I just can't wait to get it done and over with.
Well, hopefully we can get some sun in this weekend. That'd be nice. That's all for now... |
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| The Cynic's Guide to Business and Investing Terms |
[Apr. 5th, 2009|07:33 pm]
Paul D.
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AND BANKRUPT WILL ALWAYS MEAN BANKRUPT BILL FEDERMAN Section: Opinion, Page: A13 Date: Thursday, April 2, 2009 The world of investing and business is a dark and scary place. It's also more confusing because the meanings of previously familiar words have been changed by the new realities brought about by personal financial destruction and the collapse of national economies. Here, then, is a cynic's guide to business and investing terms to enlighten the naive.
Assets: The value of a person's money and property calculated to allow the maximum tax levy.
Bailout: Free government-backed insurance for businesses run by incompetent or dishonest executives with proven records of failure that allows them to repeat their mistakes.
Budget: An unrealistic spending plan based solely on good intentions.
Budget deficit: The difference between a spending plan's good intentions and reality.
Dividend: A token pittance paid to an investor by a company to give the illusion of sharing profits.
Golden parachute: A severance package of cash and benefits given to a business executive about to be fired or indicted that will ensure he can maintain an opulent lifestyle.
Investment: Money that is lost, spent or confiscated after being given to a person or business with the expectation of making a profit.
Investor: A gullible individual whose money is lost, spent or confiscated after he gives it to a person or business with the expectation of making a profit.
Liabilities: Anything, such as friends, family, government regulations and bad luck, that keeps a person from accumulating wealth.
Loss: What a person has after others profit from his investment.
Meltdown: A nebulous term used by the media to describe the simultaneous precipitous decline in the elements underpinning a nation's economy caused by greed, ignorance, incompetence and malfeasance.
Pension: Minimal payments made by a business to employees too old to continue working or enjoy life. A relic of the last century.
Profit: What others make through business dealings.
Recession: A contraction in national economic growth resulting in a financial disaster that adversely affects many because of the mismanagement of a few.
Return on investment: Money due to an investor after a company pays expenses such as attorneys' fees, fines, bribes and executive bonuses.
Risk: The certainty, expressed in degrees of severity, that an investment will incur a loss.
Stimulus package: A massive injection of public money into insolvent businesses used to pay executive bonuses and to artificially extend the life of fatally flawed business models.
Stock: An imaginary piece of a publicly traded company bought and sold for an arbitrarily set price. Buying stock allows individuals to participate in a company's losses while institutional investors profit.
Stock market: A mechanism for the orderly transfer of your losses and others' profits from buying a company's shares.
Tax: Penalties levied on low-income earners by various government entities to subsidize the wealthy.
Bill Federman is a Times Union editor. His e-mail address is bfederman@timesunion.com
http://archives.timesunion.com/mweb/wmsql.wm.request?oneimage&imageid=7751555 |
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| Life In The Navy |
[Mar. 31st, 2009|09:55 pm]
Paul D.
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( Read more...Collapse )
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| Gigs, Soreness, and Relaxing |
[Mar. 30th, 2009|08:01 pm]
Paul D.
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| [ | Tags | | | doomsday virus, harleys, p90x | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Home | ] |
| [ | Mental State |
| | relaxed | ] |
| [ | Tunes Blastin' |
| | Pray For Me - Sixx A.M. | ] |
This was a pretty good weekend but not long enough so I decided to take a vacation day today to get some stuff done. I was too wiped out from the weekend and couldn't get much sleep last night because of a sports recovery drink I had that amped me up.
Saturday night was our gig with Standard Issue Citizen and Echostream. The show went over really well. The crowd was enthusiastic and I got to see some people that I haven't seen in a looonnnggggg time. Before the show I wasn't really nervous which helped keep me loose during the set and it was warm on stage unlike the last gig where we were freezing our nuts off. I have to give a round of applause to S.I.C and Echostream who both put on excellent sets. I know I speak for the band when I say that we're looking forward to the next two gigs in the beginning of May. On one of those gigs we will be opening for Bella Morte which will be awesome. The bar was packed afterwards for Original Sin and I wish I had more energy to hang out for awhile but I had to call it a night after a long day.
Sunday Val came over in the morning so Mike and I could fix the front speakers in her car. After that I had to run out to do my usual weekend errands and then I popped in the Kenpo X workout for some exercise. Speaking of exercise, I have started doing the P90X workout series. All advertising aside this is a series of VERY challenging workouts. I figured it would be nice to change it up and get away from my usual 2.5 miles on the treadmill and then weights routine. Well, I haven't been this sore since boot camp! (Particularly my legs.) Last Friday I wanted to walk up to an Indian buffet in Albany with N. Dru but my legs were so sore I didn't think I'd make it up the hill. I've done a weeks worth of the workouts and the only one I really have a complaint about is the Yoga X workout which runs 90 minutes. So I'm gonna swap that out with another Yoga routine that I have coming from Netflix. I'm sure there'll be more updates as to my progress with this program.
Anyway... I was really hoping this week would be nicer so I could dust off the Harley and take it out for a spin but it's looking like it's going to be a wet week. Everyone else has had theirs out already and I'm getting the itch. What can you do? There's still plenty of warm weather ahead.
That's about it for now.
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