Lafatastock

Lafatastock took place in Evart, Michigan this past weekend. "House Music" played some beautiful music on some beautiful land. I have written about the music end of the weekend as well as posted some pics of the band, instruments, ect. on my main website.

Joe Lafata's father owns 180 acres of heaven up in Evart. Joe and Tom Saari headed up last Tuesday. I drove up on Thursday afternoon and we had a great evening out by the fire. Joe showed me around the land. We had some classic music blasting out over the woods including House Music, Sabbath, Zeppelin, Sly and The Family Stone, The Band, King Crimson, and Pink Floyd, among others.

Joe took the time to show me some cool abandoned structures on and around the land. As most of you who read this know I am an abandoned structure freak so I dug the old shack tour. I got some pictures of some of these posted below.

Otto Taylor, Jeff Hargis, and Paul Gagnier all came up on Saturday afternoon. Paulie brought his dirtbike and telescope. I felt bad for him because he really didn't get to use them. I brought my shortwave radio up there as well but I didn't really use it that much either. Paul told me he just got a shortwave radio. He is also interested in the paranormal as am I. I turned him onto Art Bell and he has been digging Art's show. Paulie has taken some really good ghost pictures as well.

It was a great, relaxing time and I had a lot of fun. It is nice to be able to sit with friends who you have known for years that you communicate with not only through speech but through music as well. The only souvenir I got was the ten million mosquito bites I received over the weekend but it was worth it. The drive is only about 3 hours for me so it is a nice long country drive but just like when Jack and I go up to the Northern Estate it is really hard coming home and adjusting to day to day suburban life. After spending time up north like that it's hard to not come home and immediately start writing country songs.

This building sits back in the woods of the Lafata property. 

This is a look inside of the red building.  

The old shack back in the woods. This was way too unsafe to go inside. I would love to know how long it has been abandoned. 

This is a side view of the old shack. 

These doll parts used to be nailed to the trees surrounding the old shack in some "Blair Witch" type of display. 

Tom's omelette in all of its glory. 

Paulie G. relaxing in the back of his pickup truck. 

Happy 4th

I hope everyone had a good extended holiday weekend. I am finally almost 100% recovered from the jawbone infection incident of 2005. I had a lot of rest this weekend and of course my beautiful and awesome wife took great care of me as always. Also thank you Terrie, for your kind thoughts and your Take 5 tribute.

I watched the Live 8 concerts Saturday. I was mainly trying to catch The Who's and the reunited Pink Floyd's performances. They did not broadcast much of The Who's performance but from what I did see I have no choice but to draw the conclusion that they should really hang it up. Townshend looked old as hell but he jumped around like a kid and was very energetic. Roger Daltrey looked old as hell and it seemed as if he couldn't move. He just stood in one spot slightly crouched over. I know some people will read this and will be absolutely shocked that I could ever write anything negative about The Who. The Who were always my all time favorite rock band (at least until I discovered The Band) and I could never disparage them but let's not kid ourselves. This is not The Who. It's two old guys who used to be in The Who.

Pink Floyd by contrast were awesome. They are also old as hell but at least they don't still tour. I never thought I would see Dave Gilmour and Roger Waters occupying the same stage ever again. They sounded excellent. I have always thought that David Gilmour and George Harrison were the two "classiest" guitarists I have ever heard and Gilmour's guitar playing was flawless. Waters's basslines were just as good and I loved every minute of it.

Also, after seeing her at Live 8 I now think Joss Stone is the Hottest white girl in all of the land besides my wife of course.

Saturday night I heard my first ever shortwave pirate broadcast. I was scanning around the North American pirate frequency of 6,925 khz when I heard "Stairway To Heaven" playing. I did some fine tuning and I got it sounding pretty good. After the song had ended the announcement was made that I was listening to "Undercover Radio", broadcasting from "the middle of nowhere". The guy doing the broacast said he was going to end the show with "Free Bird" but instead played "Slow Ride" by Foghat. I was really amped to hear a pirate station. I have been trying to hear one since I first got into shortwave listening.

We celebrated my birthday at my parent's house yesterday with them and my grandparents. Jack and I had a really good time. My mom made her homemade pizza which I dearly love. I recieved a Guiness t-shirt, Guiness 4 pack, lemonade maker, and the complete series collection of the TV show "Chef" on DVD from my parents. My grandparents bought me a really cool biography of Leonardo Da Vinci. Da Vinci is the supreme embodiment of the ultimate creative individual.

Last night was my first night out in a while. I went to Joe Lafata's house to do some overdubbing of guitar tracks to this past Friday's "House Music" session which I missed due to the root canal. I laid down about 5 or 6 of the craziest, most twisted guitar tracks that I have ever produced. It was a very productive session. Joe bought me a cool guitar t-shirt for my birthday.

After Joe's I headed over to Scott Lozon's. Rob Armitage was there as well. I gave each of them a copy of "A Beautiful Morning" and we shot the shit for awhile. Always good to see them. Have a great week.

The House Of Pain

I just got home from recieving an emergency root canal on my lower right molar. I have spent the better half of the last three days in a hell of a lot of pain. I had a dentist appointment tommorrow at 9:00 a.m. but I couldn't wait that long. My molar was infected and the infection spread throughout my jawbone eventually causing severe pain in my mouth and also to my inner ear on the right side. I figured I would write a quick blog update before the novacain wears off.

Somewhere there are a bunch of Take 5 candy bars silently laughing.