The Jeff Archer Blog Experiment

I Am The Abandoned Blog

2008-04-28T15:04:00.001-05:00

I Am The Abandoned Blog. Where Did The Man Who Types On Me Go?

I Don't Like The Snow.

2008-03-27T21:54:00.001-05:00

The snow can go do bad things to itself.

Introducing Jack Anthony Bugeja!!!!!!

2007-10-09T20:26:00.000-05:00

This is my new nephew Jack born to my sister Jessica and her boyfriend Dave Bugeja this afternoon. If that is not the face of a future rocker I don't know what is.

NFL Season

2007-09-07T12:43:00.001-05:00

The NFL football season is here!

Report Card

2007-06-03T22:06:00.001-05:00

At the end of May I finished up my first semester back at college in 12 years. The classes I took were "Composition II", "Music History II", and "Modern Social Problems".

Although it took a little while to get acclimated to being back in college classes I ended up with two A's and an A- for my final grades. I was shooting for B's in the three classes being that I hadn't actually taken any classes for so long but I happily accepted the 3.9 GPA for the semester.

June 12th I start my summer class "Introduction To Logic". Should be a blast.

Getting It Together

2007-05-31T12:12:00.000-05:00

I am going to start updating this blog page regularly once again. Now I know that all of you are thinking to yourselves "Bullshit! How many times is this asshole going to tell me that" but it's true this time. I think.

Nicholas

2007-05-05T12:59:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of Nicholas I took recently

The Yosh

2007-02-14T11:16:00.000-05:00

I took this picture of Yoshi this morning.

Back To School!

2007-01-10T22:24:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is my first day of college classes in 13 years. I am kind of nervous and excited at the same time. It will be kind of weird being one of the "Old People" in my classes but I am looking forward to the challenge of college classes again.

The classes I have taken are "Music Appreciation II", "Modern Sociological Problems", and "Composition II". I am hoping that I haven't taken too many classes this semester as I will definately be going through a "re-acclamation of college" period. I am assuming that the "Music Appreciation II" class will be fairly easy for me.

Anyway now that the holidays are over I will be updating both this blog and my main music site frequently again. Check back regularly for stories of my zany college adventures.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-25T01:34:00.000-05:00

Happy Holidays Everybody.

Baby Nicholas Has Arrived!

2006-10-27T11:20:00.000-05:00

I know it has been a long time since I have updated this blog and my regular website.

I am sorry for being so late with the announcement but for those of you who don't know Nicholas David Archer was born on October 12th. He was 8 lbs, 15 ozs and 20 1/2 inches long.

Jackie ended up having Nicholas by C-Section but both Jackie and Nicholas are doing great.

I will post more about everything in a couple of days.

Here is one of my favorite pictures of Nicholas. Aunt Jessica bought him his Hendrix onesie.

Baby Nicholas

2006-10-03T14:26:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow night Jackie and I go to the hospital to start inducing Jackie's labor. Nicholas should be born sometime on Thursday, October 5th.

The next post on this blog will be the first pictures of the "post-womb" Nicholas Archer.

Finally An Update.

2006-09-18T09:48:00.000-05:00

Finally an update.

My back surgery went well and I am in the midst of recovery. I can only lift 5 pounds or less so I have to be careful what I lift around the house. It's been hard on me to not be able to touch a guitar in so long. Every day seems to get a little better though.

Baby Nicholas should be making his grand entrance into the world sometime within the next three weeks. We had the baby shower for Jackie's family yesterday. We received a lot of great things for him. Thanks again everybody. We had the first baby shower for my side of the family a couple of days before I went under the knife. Nicholas has received a lot of great books. My cousin Kevin, his wife Andi, and their children Owen and Liam sent us some really nice books for Nicholas a couple of days ago. Thanks Again.

I'm glad that I have recovered enough to where I will be able to be at the hospital when Nicholas is born. I was afraid that I might not be able to be there. I may have to sit a lot of the time but I will be there.

That's about it for breaking news I'm afraid. I will post again soon, I promise.

A Date With The Knife & Happy Belated Birthday Terrie

2006-08-23T23:29:00.000-05:00

I am getting my back cut tomorrow so I will not be too active for the next month or so. If you send me any e-mail please understand if it takes me awhile to get back to you.

Also Happy Belated Birthday Terrie. I'm sorry I didn't post it up here sooner.

Happy Birthday Aaron!

2006-08-12T11:53:00.000-05:00

Today is my nephew Aaron Gazley's 3rd birthday. Aaron is the smartest person I have ever met. Words cannot describe how much I love him.

Rest In Peace Syd Barrett

2006-07-11T16:26:00.000-05:00

I found out today that Syd Barrett died a couple of days ago. Syd Barrett was the founder of Pink Floyd and one of the greatest songwriters and musicians of all time.

Syd Barrett's influence on myself as a guitarist is immense. The originality and inventiveness that he brought to guitar playing was truly amazing. His songwriting was equally as beautiful.

Although he left Pink Floyd before they recorded their second album they would have never existed without Syd Barrett. There would be no "Dark Side Of The Moon", or "Wish You Were Here", or "The Wall".

Today is a very sad day for me.

Greetings From Paradise - Pt. 4

2006-06-28T08:16:00.000-05:00

This is day 5 of mine and Jackie's vacation up in Paradise. We really haven't done very much. Jackie has read 500,000 books and I have spent 500,000 thousand hours playing with the shortwave radio.

I have heard pirate broadcasts on the shortwave everynight since we have been up here with the exception of Friday night. Pirate broadcasts are broadcasts that are transmitted illegally by unlicensed broadcasters. Below is a list of the pirate stations Jackie and I have heard.

Saturday Night
MAC Shortwave

Sunday Night
Pirate Radio Boston
The Crystal Ship (playing 60's songs)
Mystery Radio

Monday Night
WMPR (playing dance music)
The Crystal Ship (playing 80's songs this time)
Mystery Radio

Tuesday Night
Unidentified station
MAC Shortwave (playing 50's and early 60's songs, then TV themes from the 60's)

Also yesterday afternoon I heard my first "numbers" station on the shortwave. No one quite knows what the "numbers" stations are but the general assumption among shortwave people is that the "numbers" stations are stations that are broadcasting coded messages to low level spies in foreign countries. These stations feature a man or woman (or occasionally a computer voice) repeating a series of numbers over and over again. The transmissions can be in any language. The "numbers" station I heard yesterday had a woman reading the numbers in spanish. I recorded a portion of the "numbers" broadcast on my microcassette recorder. I will probably post the recording up on one of my webpages when I get home. I have been wanting to hear a "numbers" station for so long. It was great to finally hear one.

I also brought my Martin acoustic guitar up here with the intention of recording some demos for my Country/Bluegrass side project "Spooky Garcia". "Spooky Garcia" is a collaboration between Rob Scheys and myself. So far I have not done much in the way of songwriting up here.

Last but not least I have e-mailed Allen Weiner who is the general manager of the shortwave station WBCQ about buying airtime from the station so I can produce my own radio show. If I did produce a radio show I have three ideas for the type of show it would be.

Idea #1 - A radio show in which I feature the original music that I write and record along with the music that I have created with other bands such as Tonto Savalas, The Buddha All-Stars, House Music, Spooky Garcia, Ect.

Idea #2 - A radio show in which I feature the 1920's and 30's country, bluegrass, blues, and folk music that I have been collecting over the last 15 years.

Idea #3 - A talk radio show in which I talk about anything and I have Jackie's cousin Joe Miller on as my co-host with cameos from a lot of other people.

The air time on WBCQ is probably going to be too expensive to afford right now with Baby Nicholas on the way but the thought of having my own radio show is very exciting.

I will write more later.

Greetings From Paradise - Pt. 3

2006-06-25T16:41:00.000-05:00

Jackie, Harvey (our cat), the still developing Nicholas, and I are up at Jackie's parents beautiful home in Paradise.

I drove up with Jackie's dad Norm this past Friday morning. Jackie and Harvey came up Yesterday morning.

The weather up here has been beautiful. If you are standing in the sun it's about 75 degrees. If you are sitting in the back room with the windows open it's about 60 degrees. It's kinda funny to be covering up with afghans in late June.

After Norm and I got up here we brought all of out stuff in. We relaxed for a couple of minutes then we went by Jackie's Aunt Barb and Uncle Dennis's house down the road. Their house is beautiful as well. We filled the bird feeders and checked out her phone line to see if it worked because her web cam has not been updating. Their phone line was dead. Yesterday was also Dennis's last day of work for GM. Today he starts his retirement. Congratulations Dennis!

When Norm and I got back we set up the Yaesu FRG-8800 shortwave receiver that my friend Ed graciously lent to me a couple of months ago. It is an awesome shortwave receiver and it has always worked great at home so I knew it would work even better up here. After we put the antenna wire out of window and tie wrapped it to the metal antenna tower on the side of the house the Yaesu was working excellent.

One of the interests that I have inherited from Norm is a passion for shortwave radio so we had a lot of fun listening to the Yaesu for the rest of Friday night. We heard the regulars like Radio China International, Radio Japan, Radio Sweden, and Radio Taiwan International (a personal favorite of mine). We also heard harder to receive stations like Radio Ukraine International, Radio Prague, Radio Bulgaria, Radio Budapest, Radio Cairo Egypt, KBS South Korea, Radio Romania International, and All India Radio.

Right before bedtime Norm, Jackie, and I heard "MAC Shortwave" which is a pirate shortwave station coming in with a great signal.

I will write more later in the week.

Miranda Miller

2006-06-01T11:11:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of the beautiful newly born Miranda Miller. Congratulations to Joe and Alida.

"Paris Hilton Plans Reggae, Hip-Hop Album"

2006-05-30T12:47:00.000-05:00

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.

Pain and Baby Nicholas

2006-05-24T22:16:00.000-05:00

Hey all, I just thought I would give all of you an update on what's been happening.

Since this past Sunday morning I have been in the worst pain of my life. I am not kidding, nor am I exaggerating. I re-aggravated my back cleaning the garage Saturday morning. I bent down and picked up a box of books and when I went to stand up with it pain shot through my lower back and I collapsed. The pain was horrible for the remainder of the day Saturday but the next day is when the wishing that I was dead started.

I have never been a supporter of assisted suicide but I now have a new understanding of it. I am not trying to be funny by writing that either. Sunday morning was the worst morning of my entire life. I have never, ever been in that much pain. I was praying and praying that I would just pass out but I didn't. As my luck would have it Jack and I had an open house that day so that meant I had to go up and down our stairs and go over to Norm's house while two people who weren't even interested in buying our condo came over.

Luckily my mother came over and cleaned up the condo for us Sunday morning since Jackie can't really lift anything and I was dying. Thank You again Mom for helping us. I Love You.

Today has been the first day when the pain has even been "tolerable". I actually took a short drive today since I have been going insane staying in the house watching TV. In hindsight I should've stayed in today as I am feeling worse tonight then I was this afternoon.

Anyway I have to get this fixed. I NEVER, EVER want to feel like I did Sunday morning again. I don't care if I don't have the full range of movement that I had before. I simply cannot exist like this.

This has been a really cheerful blog post so far ehh?

In other news I am so so so so so so so so excited about Baby Nicholas. At times the fact that I am going to be a father still doesn't seem real to me. Jackie and I tried for years to have a baby and it never happened. We tried and tried and tried until I was really starting to lose faith in our ability to have children and I was slowly coming to terms with the fact that our "family" was going to consist of Jack and myself.

Jackie and I were just about home after the long trip from Paradise and I was driving the Torrent. She said something about her not being happy with the way that I was driving and I immediately went into "asshole" mode. Normally in that situation the chances of me going into "asshole" mode are about 50/50 but after a 6 hour trip in a car when neither of you want to be coming home at all the chances of me going into "asshole" mode are pretty good.

We got home and unpacked the car all while not speaking to each other. After we had unpacked I was on the computer and Jackie came up to me. She just said "You need to see this" and led me into the bathroom. When I saw the pregnancy test on the counter I pretty much went into shock. I'd love to be able to write that my heart immediately filled with joy and happiness but it didn't. Even though Jack and I had been hoping and wishing for that day for years, to actually be standing over a positive pregnancy test was absolutely the most surreal moment of my life. It really screwed me up for about an hour because I had gotten to the point where I just didn't think it would ever happen. After the initial shock wore off I was really happy but at first it was just so out of left field that it didn't seem real.

But real it is and I have photos to prove it. I am really excited about Nicholas. Jackie is going to be a great mother. She has so much love in her heart and she's kind and intelligent and Nicholas is really lucky in that respect. She loves Nicholas so much.

I am really interested to see how much of Jackie Nicholas becomes and which of my characteristics Nicholas inherits. I'm guessing that he will like reading as both Jack and I love to read. I hope he likes music but it's cool if he doesn't. I won't be one of those fathers who force their kids into doing things they don't want to do. I am fairly certain that Nicholas will be a sarcastic smart ass just like his parents.

I also can't wait to see my parents and grandparents and Jackie's parents interact with young Nicholas. Nicholas will be Norm and Sass's 4th grandson but my parents first. I think my mom and dad will be great grandparents. My grandparents are also very excited about Nicholas and I can't wait to see my grandmother hold him for the first time.

I'll write more about Nicholas later but my back is killing me right now so I am done for tonight.

Baby Nicholas's first music.

2006-05-22T20:34:00.000-05:00

Tonight Jackie and I spent a half an hour or so playing Nicholas his first music. We played him the music from my new Ipod by placing the headphones on Jack's belly. The first song we played him was "Deep Blue Day" by Brian Eno. Nicholas then enjoyed an excerpt from Eno's "Discreet Music".

After that we played him "Astral Weeks" and "Ballerina" by Van Morrison and "Little Wing" by Jimi Hendrix.

I am really curious as to how the music sounds to Nick. I wanted to play Nicholas some Melt-Banana or Fantomas but Jackie said no. Maybe next time.

Norm's Place

2006-05-05T07:26:00.000-05:00

My brother in-law Norm has made a blog page. You can check it out by clicking here.

2006-05-01T22:28:00.000-05:00

The Mighty Oilers

Congratulations Edmonton Oilers

2006-05-01T22:08:00.000-05:00

The Edmonton Oilers just wrapped up their first round series against the Red Wings winning by a score of 4-3 in Game 6. I felt kind of bad for the Red Wings after the Oilers won but the fact was that Manny Legace played horribly.

I like the Red Wings but they aren't really one of my favorite NHL teams. The Oilers however have always been amongst my favorites along with Toronto and Montreal. Now I just hope that Montreal beats Carolina tomorrow to force a Game 7 in their series.

Keith Richards Hospitalized

2006-04-29T13:12:00.000-05:00

I just saw that Keith Richards was hospitalized in New Zealand after suffering a mild concussion. You can read the article here.

The article said that Richards suffered the concussion after falling out of a palm tree while on vacation in Fiji. I guess my only thought about this is WHAT THE HELL IS KEITH RICHARDS DOING UP IN A PALM TREE?

275 year old people should not climb palm trees for any reason.

Happy Birthday

2006-04-20T11:15:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday Jackie, I love you.

Saturday Morning

2006-04-15T09:42:00.001-05:00

It is a lovely Saturday morning. Yesterday was awesome as well. It was the first day that felt like Summer to me and despite my crippling back pain it felt great.

I had a good session with "House Music" last night. The music was pretty twisted and loud and I was able to play without too much difficulty.

I am glad to be getting the websites back up and running. Jackie has added some video of Harvey to her website. It's nice to finally be able to incorporate video into our websites which is something that we have wanted to do for awhile.

I am still trying to decide what I want to do with my website. I want the layout to be different than what it was but I'm not sure how I am going to go about it.

My good friend A.C. came over to the house last Sunday and we spent a couple of hours transferring a bunch of my CD's into his laptop so he could upload the music into his Ipod. We must have loaded at least 20 CD's of mine into Anthony's laptop. I burned 6 CD's from Anthony as well. The CD's I burned from him were

Metallica - Master Of Puppets
The Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesties Request
The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
The Beatles - Let It Be
The Beatles - The Beatles (Discs 1 & 2)

As most of you probably know The Beatles self titled album is commonly referred to as "The White Album". I burned Anthony's copy of "The White Album" because he had the American Stereo version of the album whereas I have the British Mono version. When "The White Album" was first released in Britain in 1968 it was available in both Mono and Stereo versions whereas it was only available in stereo in the U.S.

When I was a child I had the Stereo version on cassette but when I started collecting CD's I found a bootleg version of "The White Album" which contained the British Mono version plus a lot of demo's of the albums songs recorded by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison at Harrison's house. So for years the only version of the album that I heard was the Mono version.

Listening to the Stereo version that I burned from Anthony was awesome. It was the first time that I had heard the Stereo mixes of those songs in probably 20 years and they sounded wonderful. I guess the best way to describe it would be to imagine yourself reading a book with regular black text on white paper and then someone hands you that same book in a glossy, full color, "pop up" version. "The White Album" has always been my favorite Beatles album but it was like I was hearing again for the very first time. When I was a child The Beatles were always my favorite group (at least until I discoved The Who).

Anthony also gave me two DVD's to watch. The first was a collection of fishing shows called "Fishing With John". "Fishing With John" is some of the funniest stuff me and Jackie have ever seen. There are only 6 episodes but they are absolutely hysterical. The host John goes fishing in various locations with different celebrities. The celebrities on the six shows were Tom Waits, Jim Jaramusch, Matt Dillon, Willem Defoe, and Dennis Hopper (2 episodes). The half hour where Jack and I watched the episode where John and Willem Defoe go ice fishing in Maine was one of the most rewarding of my life.

The second DVD is a movie called "Searching For The Wrong-Eyed Jesus". This film was playing down at the Detroit Institute Of Arts a couple of months ago. I have not seen much of it yet but it is a documentary of a musician who lives in the south (Texas I believe) and it seems very interesting.

Websites Are Back

2006-04-13T14:12:00.000-05:00

I received the copy of Microsoft Front Page 2003 that I ordered yesterday. After doing some re-configuring I have gotten mine and Jack's websites back up and running. Jackie will probably be updating her site tonight. I am contemplating a re-design of my website as I was kind of tired of the old format. I'm not sure what kind of website I will be creating but I hope to have something up soon. In the meantime on my site you can see a picture of my wonderful nephews.

Black Helicopters Aren't Just For The Sky Anymore

2006-04-09T07:03:00.000-05:00

Just when I was secure in the thought that cattle mutilations were caused by extraterrestrials I read this.

Websites Back Soon

2006-04-07T06:10:00.000-05:00

I ordered a copy of Front Page from Microsoft yesterday so mine and Jack's websites should be back up and running within the month. I am hoping that we will be able to start work on our webpages right where we left off at since I saved the files before I wiped our computer. As the copy of Front Page I bought yesterday is a newer version that what we were using previously I'm hoping the files will transfer without problem. If they don't then we will have to redo our webpages which is ok with me but I don't think Jack would be very happy. I have been thinking about redoing mine anyway.

I re-aggravated my back getting into my Jeep to get the second steroid injection Wednesday morning so I have been in agony ever since then. I took it pretty easy yesterday and watched some DVD's and took my beloved painkillers. I also recorded a new piece for the "Northville" project.

Steroid Injections Pt.2 and other nice things

2006-04-05T10:54:00.000-05:00

I received my second steroid injection this morning. Because the herniated disc that I have is the lowest disc on my spine the doctor must administer these injections in the top of my ass crack. In case you weren't sure that injections in the top of your ass crack are a bad thing let me reassure you, injections in the top of your ass crack ARE a bad thing. However I did learn that I have lost 9 pounds since last Monday.

The building of the modular synth is progressing slowly but surely. I have included a few pictures below of the completed oscillator section.

The guitar effects manufacturer "Effector 13" is going to feature some of the music from the "A Beautiful Morning" album on their website. "A Beautiful Morning" was recorded using a Effector 13 pedal called the "Truly Beautiful Disaster". I sent a copy of the album to the owner of the company yesterday so it will probably be a little while before its up on the website. I will let everyone know when they can check it out. Anyway I'm pretty excited about it.

That's all I have for now.

2006-04-05T10:53:00.000-05:00

The front of the circuit board of the oscillator section.

2006-04-05T10:51:00.000-05:00

The front panel of the completed oscillator section of my modular synthesizer.

Joshua Vincent Gazley

2006-03-28T23:08:00.000-05:00

I forgot to post this in my last blog post. Jackie and I have a new nephew. Joshua Vincent Gazley was born on March 18th to Theresa and Ryan Gazley, Jackie's Sister and Brother In-Law.

1rst Audioblogger Post / New "House Music" / Steroid Injections Anyone?

2006-03-26T12:04:00.000-05:00

Right now I am going through my regular routine of cleaning the tape heads on my various tape recorders here at the lovely Breezeway Studios so I thought I would make a quick post.

Below is the first of what will be many Audioblogger posts. Jackie recorded this first post. You call a phone number and then you record a "message" that you want to be posted up on your blog page. Then you hang up and it automatically posts your "message" up on the page. We recorded this one and then immediately went to the computer and it was already up on the blog here.

I start getting steroid injections into my spine tommorrow morning in an effort to fix my back. That should be fun.

"House Music" has a brand new album out called "Effortless". I will probably be posting it up on my download page soon. It features Tom Saari on vocals, Joe Lafata on Keyboards and myself on guitars.

I am making progress on the building of my modular synthesizer. I have completed the two voltage controlled oscillators. Next I am going to start the filters. Sadly I did not take any pictures while I was building the oscillators but I am going to start taking some pics as I build the rest of the synth system.

Mine and Jack's website's will be back in business eventually.

2006-03-25T09:58:00.000-05:00

A (somewhat) Quick Note

2006-02-24T12:01:00.001-05:00

Hello, Jack and I are once again up in Paradise. There is a lot of snow up here. I just thought I would post a quick message to let you all know what has been going on.

I recently had to wipe our computer clean and re-format it due to viruses. As a result of this both mine and Jack's websites cannot be updated until we get Microsoft Front Page back on our computer. It may be awhile before there are any updates on those sites.

There are still people coming by to look at our condo once in awhile but no one has put in any bids on the place yet. Thankfully there hasn't been any shootings next door in the past two weeks.

Since I cannot update my main "music" website this blog page shall become (temporarily anyway) my "all purpose" blog.

That being said I recieved my new updated version of the Cakewalk digital recording software a couple of days ago. It looks pretty cool. It's recording capabilities have expanded from 16 tracks to 64 tracks so I am pretty geeked about recording with it. Now that I have a Mellotron I can really due some damage.

I also finally recieved my Paia modular synthesizer kit in the mail about a week ago. Now I need to assemble it all and I will have my very first modular system to experiment with.

Happy Birthday, Back Pain & White Trash Saturday

2006-02-01T08:50:00.000-05:00

Happy Belated Birthday Sass! Jackie's Mom's birthday was on January 28th.

There have been some rather interesting things happening lately.

I start physical therapy for my back today. I haven't really mentioned it to many people but my back has been pretty messed up for about a month and a half now. I went to the doctor and he took some x-rays and told me to try the therapy and if that doesn't work he will take a MRI and we will go from there. I have alot of back pain which has been making it pretty hard to work on any music.

Last Saturday night the kid who lives next door to us shot both his mother and stepfather in the legs with a .22 caliber rifle.

Jackie and I had gone out to dinner with my family for my cousin Tina's birthday. When we got home we saw a fire engine parked on the main street of our condo complex. As we turned the corner to our building we saw a truck marked "Bomb Squad" parked outside of our neighbors house with a man in full Army camouflage gathering things together. Then as we pulled up to our driveway there were 2 Chesterfield Police cars parked outside our neighbors building with their spotlights on. The cops were inside their condo and they left soon after that. When they left no one was in the house.

These neighbors are to put it nicely "white trash" so seeing that the Bomb Squad was there we figured either the "white trash" kid was building bombs or perhaps he was operating a "white trash" meth lab in the basement. When there was no one left in the house after the police had left Jack and I figured that they had all been arrested and taken to jail.

The next morning I was cleaning the condo for an "open house" we were having that day to try to get someone to buy it from us. I was in the music/scrapbooking room when Jackie asked me if I had seen the Fox 2 news van outside. I hadn't. Jack said that as she was coming into the complex she had passed the van as it was leaving. We figured that the van's presence in our quiet, sleepy little condo complex had to have had something to do with the police/bomb squad activity that had taken place the night before. We did not fail to appreciate how lucky we were that Fox 2 News might be filming and more police activity might be taking place while "prospective purchasers" of our condo would be walking through and trying to imagine what their new life at Seaview Condominiums might be like. Thankfully no incidents occurred while the "prospective purchasers" were touring the condo.

Jack and I went to my parents house for dinner that night. We watched Fox 2 news and found out that the "white trash" son had in fact shot both "white trash" parents. I also read an article about it the next day in the Macomb Daily which is where I found out that they had been shot in the legs over a dispute about money. The son had left the condo after he shot his parents but was arrested soon afterward. Jack and I are still not sure why the bomb squad and fire engine were there though. I think that the "white trash" mother had to be laying in the hospital that night thinking "Damn! I really kicked ass at that Motherhood thing".

I tried to imagine the scene of the shooting myself the next day.....

White Trash Son - "Mom and Dad, I want that money. It's mine"

White Trash Dad - "We are not giving you this money so you can just go spend it on supplies for your meth lab"

White Trash Son - "It doesn't matter what I'm going to spend the money on, it's mine"

White Trash Mom - "We are not giving you this money"

White Trash Son - "Oh, O.K." (turning and walking into his bedroom, returning after a minute or two with a rifle)

White Trash Son - "You could have just given me the money but now you are going to have to feel the power of a .22 caliber rifle as I shoot both of you in your legs"

White Trash Mom and Dad - "Son, don't do it"

White Trash Son - (Thinking to himself, "Yes, this is the thing to do in this situation. They won't give me the money so I must shoot them in the legs. This situation couldn't possibly turn out badly for me", He pulls the trigger multiple times and shoots them both)

White Trash Mom and Dad - "You shot us you son of a bitch"

White Trash Son - "You bitches just got served"

I had more to write but anything else I would type now would pale in comparison to the "white trash" shooting story so I will stop here.

Greetings From Paradise - Pt. 2

2006-01-15T10:12:00.000-05:00

This is the last day of mine and Jack's "mini-vacation" up here in Paradise. We are leaving early tomorrow morning. I have school Monday evening and then all day Tuesday.

The highlight of our day yesterday was a trip to Eckerton for dinner at the Bear Butt Inn. Jack and I both got hamburgers. Jack got american cheese and bacon on hers while I got all crazy and got american and pepper cheese,bacon, and ham on mine. Their hamburgers are the best.

I have been reading a book up here that my Grandmother bought for me called "The Encyclopedia Of Music". This is the most fascinating book I have read in a long time. It basically begins with sections on each of the orchestral instruments (strings, woodwinds, brass, ect.). Then it has sections on individual composition styles throughout the centuries such as the Medieval, Baroque, Classical, and Romantic era's. The third part of the book has individual biographies of over 100 of the most famous classical composers.

Jack and I have gotten some pretty cool shortwave stations in up here. We started off our day today listening to China Radio International. We were not fortunate enough to receive any more free Chinese language lessons. Yesterday we also listened to Radio Austria International, Radio Sweden, Radio Taiwan, Radio Habana Cuba, and KBS World Radio which is broadcast out of South Korea. I wanted to hear Radio Cairo Egypt but the reception was too poor.

Jack's Uncle Dennis and Aunt Barb are up here as well so we are going to go over to their house a little later to visit. We are going to the Yukon Inn for dinner tonight. Good Times.

Greetings From Paradise

2006-01-14T08:13:00.000-05:00

Jack and I are up in Paradise until Monday. We got up here about 8:00 P.M. last night after driving through torrential rain and snow.

I am listening to China Radio International on my shortwave receiver. They are trying to teach me Chinese. As a result of their efforts I can now say "Cat" In Chinese.

I brought my old acoustic guitar up with us to keep at the house here. I don't use it much at home since I now have the Martin so I figured it would be good to have something up here to bang on.

I set up my "Audioblogger" account the other night. I haven't gotten a chance to make a posting yet but I will try to make one on the way home from Paradise.

That's all for now.

2006-01-11T16:44:00.000-05:00

The Birthday Boy.

The Holidays Are In Fact Over/Brendan is 4 Today!

2006-01-11T16:19:00.000-05:00

Yes my friends, The holidays are over and the year is 2006.

Today is my nephew Brendan's birthday. He is the big 4 today. He will be starting his school career very shortly.

The holiday season was wonderful. Many good times were had. Thank You to all of you who thought enough of me to give me gifts. You are all wonderful, beautiful people and I love you all.

Mine and Jack's condo is still up for sale. We dropped our asking price by $3,000 in an attempt to lure some more "potential buyers". We have had a couple of people in to see the place but we have received no bids of any sort.

I received a lot of cool books for Christmas. My lovely wife bought me "Two Way Radios and Scanners For Dummies" and "Ham Radio For Dummies" as I am going to start preparing for my entry into the world of ham radio.

I am going to be setting up my "Audioblogger" account this evening so look here soon for my first "Audio" blog post. The way it works is I will call a phone number with my cell phone and record my "post" and then it will automatically be sent as an audio file to this very blog page. Pretty cool eh?

My New Year's Resolution is to be a more dilligent and attentive Blogger.

That's all for now as "The Gilmore Girls" is going to start soon.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2005-12-23T12:25:00.000-05:00

Happy Holidays to everyone.

I am just about ready for Christmas. Christmas Eve night Jack and I are going to my parents house for a holiday gathering with the Archers. That should be fun but it is also just a primer for the blitzkrieg that is Christmas Day.

Jack and I will wake up early Christmas Morning and open our presents. Then we will drive over to my parents house and exchange presents with them and my brother since my sister is in Florida for Christmas. Then we will drive over to my grandparents house for Christmas morning breakfast and presents. Then we will drive over to Jack's parents house to do presents over there, have Christmas Dinner, and see my nephews. Then we will drive to my cousin Karen's house for the Butler family Christmas gathering. Then we will drive home and probably fall asleep very quickly.

I am probably going up to Paradise with Jackie's dad and my brother in-law, Ryan this Tuesday morning. Jackie will be coming up on Thursday evening. Sass and Terrie are supposed to come up with the boys on Friday night. I am taking my scanner, shortwave radio, and a microcassette recorder. I tell you this as if you care what I take up with me.

I hope everyone has an awesome Christmas.

Update

2005-12-06T16:24:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that I have updated my main webpage - https://home.comcast.net/~sonicworkshop/

I've completed my album "A Thread Of Light In The Cloak Of Darkness". I have the album, in it's entirety available for download at my download page - http://www.soundlift.com/band/music.php?id=102893

I have to stop typing now. I just bit into a pepperoni and sausage Hot Pocket and sausage juice squirted all over me.

2005-12-02T17:46:00.000-05:00

I think this picture is funny.

Getting Ready For Christmas

2005-12-02T17:27:00.000-05:00

I apologize for the lack of postings lately. It's just that I am lazy.

I have been getting my shopping done. I've got some pretty cool gifts this year. I am not really a good gift buyer. I tend to forget all of the things that I hear people say about things they want or need throughout the year. I think I have some good ones this year.

Our computer has problems the end result of which means that very soon we will have to wipe everything off of it and re-format the hard drive, then re-install everything. This is going to suck so bad. I have been gathering all of our pictures together to burn onto CD so we don't lose them. Personally I will lose a lot of the music that I have been working on in the "Cakewalk" program. I am currently mixing alot of the unfinished music in an effort to transfer it to CD in hopes of possibly re-transfering it over to the fixed computer so I can complete it. I don't know how well this will work and I am going to have to accept the fact that I may lose a lot of music.

Thanksgiving was a blast. We spent the morning at my wonderful parents house. My brother and sister were there. My grandparents came by later. Later in the day we went to Jackie's parents house. Jack's dad had to work so he left early which sucked. I had a lot of fun wrestling with my nephews though. Dinner at both homes was awesome.

I will be updating my homepage very soon. I have completed the "A Thread Of Light In The Cloak Of Darkness" album. I am coming up with some song titles then I will post them on the Homepage. I will also post the album in it's entirety on my music download page.

I recently discovered "Audioblogger" http://audioblogger.com/ . This site will allow me to call a phone number and record audio blog posts which will be immediately posted onto this very blog page. I think this will be very good for when I'm really drunk and I feel like addressing you all with my thoughts on subjects of various interests. It may also be fun when I sing Karaoke to hold out my phone when I sing and record it for all of you to listen to. Stay tuned for some audio postings.

Happy Thanksgiving

2005-11-24T08:14:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving people. Jack and I are going to my parents house this morning to watch the Thanksgiving day parade. We will eat a little bit over there before we go to Jack's Mom and Dad's house for dinner. It should be a stellar day. All you crazy mofo's be careful driving today in Deathstorm 2005.

Saturday Morning

2005-11-12T09:33:00.000-05:00

It is Saturday morning. It is good.

There is a new web address for my music download page. The new address is

http://www.soundlift.com/jeffarcher for those of you who want to hear the terrible noises that I produce. The site I am working through changed their name from IC Music Media to Soundlift so they changed all the page addresses as well.

I am finally starting to feel somewhat normal again after two weeks of being sick.

Last weekend I watched 12 episodes of "What's Happening" back to back.

I am thinking of going to the cider mill today. Jackie has a dentist appointment so I may go to the mill for some pumpkin and buttermilk doughnuts.

Aren't you glad that you took time out of your busy day to read this blogpage today?

2005-11-04T09:35:00.000-05:00

I took this picture in Kuster cemetery in the middle of the night. This pink mist showed up in about five different pictures I took at Kuster that evening. I can't think of a rational explaination as to the origin of the mist. This picture and the one below this go with the "Ghosts Of Anchor Bay" discussion in the "Recovering" post below.

2005-11-04T09:32:00.000-05:00

My brother -in law, Ryan took this picture of a random headstone in Arlington cemetery. It wasn't a foggy night and the white mist captured in this shot is unexplainable.

Recovering

2005-11-04T08:43:00.000-05:00

I am in recovery. I got laid off from my life destroying construction job Monday. I have had a bad cold since then. I was supposed to give blood yesterday at the pipefitters school but I couldn't since I am sick. Today is the first day that I feel somewhat normal although I am far from 100%

Jackie leaves today for her Lapeer scrapbook weekend. This means that my bachelor weekend begins. If all goes as planned I will be making some music with Rob Scheys, making some music with myself, and perhaps making some music with House Music. All in all I am hoping for a thoroughly musical weekend as I haven't had the energy to do anything musically for about two months.

Halloween was a good time. It was great to see my nephews Brendan and Aaron. Brendan was Spiderman and Aaron was Superman. Jackie's mom got pizza for us. I was really tired and working a lot so I didn't get to put together my Halloween presentation that I wanted to this year. My presentation consisted of me playing Black Sabbath songs backwards to the trick or treating children while yelling at them in a Satan voice produced by one of my guitar pedals while hiding. It was going to be awesome. Perhaps I will try it next year.

I recently bought a book called "Ghosts Of Anchor Bay". It is written by Debi Chestnut and Linda Sparkman and as the title suggests it focuses on hauntings and paranormal activity in the Anchor Bay area. I emailed Debi Chestnut about a couple of the houses mentioned in her book. I also mentioned in my email some pictures that I have taken in which "unexplained" things have appeared. She wanted me to email some of these pictures to her so I sent her some pics that I took at Kuster cemetery in Lenox Twsp. in which an unexplainable pink mist appeared in some of the shots. I sent her a couple other "ghostly" pictures that I have taken at other locations as well as a picture that was taken by my brother-in law Ryan at Arlington cemetery. I include both the pictures of the Kuster pink mist and Ryan's Arlington white mist above this post.

I have been listening for "numbers" stations on my shortwave radio lately. "Numbers" stations are basically frequencies whose transmissions consist of a voice repeating a series of numbers over and over. It is generally believed that these "numbers" transmissions are coded messages for spies in other countries. The transmissions originate in and are directed at many countries so it is hard to identify the nationality of the transmissions other than by the accent of the "numbers" voice. I have never heard a "numbers" station but I have read alot about them and Jackie's father, Norm told me about them as well.

Looking out my window I see a beautiful, cloudy, gloomy autumn morning so I am going outside to play.

One And A Half Feet In The Grave

2005-10-24T17:35:00.000-05:00

I am slowly dying.

I know people work the hours that I am working all the time but I just don't see how they do it. The physical deterioration of my body has progressed to the point where feeling as if I died two weeks ago feels normal. On the plus side the money is nice especially with Christmas coming up soon.

Mine and Jack's third anniversary was October 12th. She got me an ELO CD box set, A Bob Dylan CD and DVD and a new copy of The Band's "The Last Waltz" CD box set. She is the best and I love her with all of my heart.

Jackie has some cool Halloween themes posted on her site right now. Check it out.

Jackie and I heard the pirate station WMPR on the shotrwave radio the other day.

I was having some problems with uploading Mp3's to my download page but I got everything sorted out so I will probably upload the next ten tracks from "A Beautiful Morning" onto the download page tommorrow afternoon.

Hello

2005-10-01T09:08:00.000-05:00

I've been working 10 hour shifts down at the Marathon refinery. I am a "service" technician which means I go out to various commerical heating and air conditioning units that are not working and attempt to troubleshoot those problems and then fix them. Since I was laid off and "service" has been slow I have been placed at the Martathon job which is "construction". I am not a "construction" pipefitter and I do not know much about it so it pretty much sucks.

I have this weekend off and then I will be working 10 or 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for the next 30 - 45 days. Now as far as I can see there is two ways to look at this.

10 or 12 hours a day, 7 days a week = a lot of money. or,

10 or 12 hours a day, 7 days a week = A complete physical breakdown of my body.

In lighter news, Jack and I have had a couple more people walk through our condo to check it out but we still haven't gotten any bids on it yet. Below is my "Golden Rule" concerning condominium purchasing.

Never, Never, Ever Under Any Circumstances Buy A Condominium.

I won't go into my reasoning for giving you this advice because it would take far too much space on this blog and all of you would fall asleep before you finished reading about the things that suck ass about living in a condo that you own.

The only exception to my "Golden Rule" would be if you are old and you cannot physically take care of a yard or shovel snow, ect. Then it is probably a pretty good deal.

I continue my study of Leonardo Da Vinci. I have started to read "Leonardo Da Vinci" by Sherwin B. Nuland. I have found that whenever an individual reads several biographical texts of a particular person, that individual is bound to find differences in the stated facts between the texts. I first encountered this problem when I started my study of the Jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. I bought about 5 different Coltrane biographies in the span of 4 months or so and when reading these book it sometimes seemed as if the 5 books were about 4 different people. In the case of Da Vinci I can somewhat understand the problems of the varying stated factual occurrences of his life as he was dead by 1519 but with the Coltrane books it seemed that it was plain laziness on the part of certain authors.

I have updated my music download page with the next 10 songs from "A Beautiful Morning". Check it out if you like insane guitar jams.

I'm done writing.

Back To The Real World

2005-09-17T09:18:00.000-05:00

I guess I didn't do too well on my pledge to update this blog every other day or so. Oh Well.

Jack and I have been back from the U.P. for a week now. We really wish that we were still up there. We had alot of fun. When we got back we both started new jobs. I started a temporary job in St. Clair Shores that should last another week or so. Jackie started working at the DTE Royal Oak service center since they shut down the Lapeer customer service station where she was working.

There are some pictures of the "Good Old Days" beer tent trip on my main website.

I haven't been writing or recording at all lately. I played with "House Music" last night for the first time in a couple of months.

My study of Leonardo Da Vinci continues.

I'm sorry I really thought I had more to write.

Paradise Pt.2

2005-09-06T06:50:00.000-05:00

I meant to write yesterday but I forgot. By the way you can check out the "Northern Estate" where Jackie and I are spending time this week by clicking HERE.

Sunday night Jackie and I watched "Rome" on HBO. I had heard there was a lot of nudity in the show but I didn't think there was, too bad. I thought it was a really good show and we saw the first two episodes. Unfortunately we don't have HBO at home so those are the only two episodes that we will see until it comes out on DVD.

Yesterday Jack and I went to Sault St. Marie. I bought another book on Leonardo Da Vinci and a "Recording" magazine. We also went to the "Dollar Tree" where we struggled in vain to find a copy of "Gamera vs. Monster X" on DVD. Norm and Sass bought it while they were up here and we watched it. It is one of the greatest films in the history of cinema. While in the Soo we ate at Clyde's hamburger place. Both Jack's parents and her Aunt and Uncle told us that we had to check out Clyde's for their big burger. Well they weren't kidding. We split the hamburger between us because it was really big. Good stuff.

We also visited with Jack's Aunt Barb and Uncle Dennis for a while last night. It was nice to relax a little and talk with them. They also have a beautiful place up here. You can check out their website by clicking HERE.

We watched "Rome: Engineering An Empire" last night on the history channel. While Jackie has always been interested in ancient Rome for it's political power struggles, I have always been interested in it's inventions and engineering feats. The show on the History Channel centered on the design and construction of the aquaducts, the Coliseum, the Parthenon, and other structures.

I tried all weekend to receive a pirate broadcast on the shortwave radio. I figured that Labor Day weekend would be a great time to hear a pirate but I heard nothing. Damn Pirates.

I mentioned that I had brought my Martin acoustic guitar up here. Yesterday Jackie and I sat by the creek and I played old country songs while she read. It was really nice.

Tonight we are going to sit on the beach, look at the stars, and drink some alcohol.

Paradise

2005-09-04T11:00:00.000-05:00

I am writing this, sitting about 35 feet away from Whitefish Bay on Lake Superior.

Jack and I are up in Paradise for a week. We came up Friday evening. Norm and Sass were up here but they left this morning. Jack's Uncle Dennis and Aunt Barb are up here for a couple days as well.

Me and Jack are looking forward to a week of R&R. We don't plan on doing too much up here other than a trip to St. Sault Marie and the occasional aimless drive around the area. I brought up my Martin acoustic guitar, my shortwave radio, the XM radio, and books on Leonardo Da Vinci. Jackie brought up some books and she plans on putting some puzzles together.

Yesterday we basically hung out with Norm and Sass. We got ice cream uptown but there wasn't much of a selection left. Last night we hung out on the backporch and looked at the water and stars.

Also I wanted to let everyone know that Ozzy, the Archer family dog for the last 16 years passed away last week. I wanted to bring up a picture of Ozzy to post on this page but I forgot. Ozzy was the best dog that anyone could have and he will be missed. He rocked hard.

I will try to write more tommorrow but we have a big day planned of sitting on our asses.

Norm and Joe On The Silver Screen

2005-08-28T12:15:00.000-05:00

Hey Everyone, I wanted to let you all know that my brother in-law Norm and Jackie's cousin Joe have made a movie. They sent me the trailer to post up on my websites to get the word out. It looks really good. Check out the trailer for their movie by clicking here.

Joe Miller's Ghostly Images, Nick Hydel and more.

2005-08-25T13:14:00.000-05:00

Hey Y'all,

I thought I would make an attempt at updating this blog every other day or so like people are supposed to. We'll see how long this lasts.

A couple of months ago Jackie's cousin Joe Miller had a photograph that he took of his sister Anne Hull's house posted on the "Coast To Coast A.M." website. "Coast To Coast" is pretty much Mine and Jack's favorite radio show. The show tends to center on the paranormal, mysterious, and unexplained which, after music and art of course, are my main interests . The picture contained some ghostly images that are pretty convincing. It was a pretty substantial feat to have a picture posted on the "Coast To Coast" website as people submit hundreds of photos a day. I don't know why I didn't post this before but here it is. People in the know will recognize Joe as "Nick Hydel" from the "An Evening With Nick Hydel" audio that was posted on my main website about a year ago. Here is the link to Joe's picture on the "Coast To Coast" website.

Speaking of "Nick Hydel" I think it's time for Nick to start making some more appearances on my website. Maybe we can create a "Nick's Corner" type of thing where he can interview different people about various topics. What do you think Nick? Richmond's "Good Old Days" celebration is coming up so it might be a good time to dust off the old microcassette recorder.

You can check out Joe and his wife Alida's website here.

You can check out the Hull Family Blogspot here.

I can't think of anything else to write. Stay Gold people, Stay Gold.

Finally An Update Pt. 2

2005-08-22T09:09:00.000-05:00

Hello everybody. I am finally getting around to another update. I know blogs are supposed to be updated daily or somewhere near daily but this has proved to be an impossible task for me as of late. A lot has been going on so let me clue you in as to what has been happening.

Jackie and I got back from "The Northern Estate" last night. We had a good time and just relaxed for the most part. We arrived there on Thursday evening. Jack's parents Norm and Sass came up on Friday night. On Saturday night we went over to Jack's Uncle Dennis and Aunt Barb's house down the road. A lot of Jack's cousins were there and I won't name them all as I am bound to forget someone and I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings but they are all great people and it was good to see them. I didn't take any of my usual "toys" with me such as musical instruments, shortwave radio, ect. but I did get a chance to listen to my XM radio on the way up there.

I got laid off from my job two Friday's ago. This is probably a good thing since I now have more time to clean and straighten up the condo being that it is up for sale. We have had quite a few people come through the condo to look at it since it has been up on the market and it is very encouraging. Hopefully we can sell it in the not so distant future and we can concentrate on buying a house.

Now that I am laid off I will have to wait for a little while before I can buy the Paia P9700S modular synthesizer kit that I wrote about last time. I am really looking forward to getting it and putting it all together. I really like getting projects like that and soldering everything together and learning about the electronics involved. It will be alot of fun to be able to sit down with the finished modular synthesizer and experiment.

I have been studying and reading a lot about Leonardo Da Vinci lately. To me Da Vinci has always been the Patron Saint of Creativity. It is amazing to me that someone could be so prolific and productive in so many areas and I have always loved his art. My favorite artist though is still Hieronymous Bosch. I would love to know where he got his visions from. There is nothing to compare to his paintings. I have included some Da Vinci and Bosch painting below for you all to view.

I updated both my main webpage and my download page today. I posted the first ten tracks from "A Beautiful Morning" on the download page. Enough about this music shit. This blog is for other things.

2005-08-22T08:59:00.000-05:00

This is probably my favorite of Leonardo Da Vinci's paintings "The Virgin Of The Rocks".

2005-08-22T08:58:00.000-05:00

This is Leonardo Da Vinci's "St Jerome".

2005-08-22T08:55:00.000-05:00

This is "Hell", the right panel of Hieronymous Bosch's "Haywain".

2005-08-22T08:52:00.000-05:00

Hieronymous Bosch's "Death And The Miser".

2005-08-22T08:50:00.000-05:00

This is the center panel of Hieronymous Bosch's "The Temptation Of Saint Anthony".

2005-08-06T09:02:00.000-05:00

This is the PAIA modular synthesizer kit as it is sent to you.

2005-08-06T09:01:00.000-05:00

This is the top view of the modular synthesizer in it's case.

2005-08-06T08:59:00.000-05:00

This is part of what I would be assembling If I bought the PAIA modular synthesizer kit.

Finally An Update

2005-08-06T08:41:00.000-05:00

I know it's been a long time since I updated the sites. Being that it is Summer Jackie and I have been pretty busy. There have been other times when I could have updated but I'm lazy.

I have been getting into electronics again. My parents bought me a RIAA compensated phono preamp kit from a company called PAIA. Basically it is a module that I can plug my record player into and then run it into the computer. This way I can transfer all of my old beloved records onto CD. I am considering buying PAIA's analogue modular synthesizer package. It is a lot of money and I'd have to assemble the whole thing myself but when it is done I would have a modular synthesizer to play with.

Jackie and her parents bought me XM radio for my birthday. It is the coolest. I have been checking out all of the channels. Coast To Coast A.M. is played on one of the channels for 8 hours every night. My favorite channel is probably "Hank's Place" which plays 50's and 60's country music. You can also listen to the XM over your computer if you are a subscriber. Jackie likes listening to it while she's online.

That's all I can think of right now.

Lafatastock

2005-07-11T11:08:00.000-05:00

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.

2005-07-11T11:07:00.000-05:00

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

2005-07-11T11:06:00.000-05:00

This is a look inside of the red building.

2005-07-11T11:05:00.000-05:00

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.

2005-07-11T11:04:00.000-05:00

This is a side view of the old shack.

2005-07-11T11:03:00.000-05:00

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

2005-07-11T10:59:00.001-05:00

Tom's omelette in all of its glory.

2005-07-11T10:59:00.000-05:00

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

Happy 4th

2005-07-04T18:16:00.000-05:00

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

2005-07-01T11:52:00.000-05:00

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.

Another Lovely Summer Day

2005-06-27T16:48:00.000-05:00

It's really hot out. I mean damn hot. I was working on the roof of the American Axle plant in Hamtramck like I always do and I thought that I had died and went to Hell.

Jack and I went to her cousin Denny and his wife Jen's house Saturday for their son Matthew's birthday party. It was cool to see everyone and they had some great food. Denny has built a home theater in his basement and it rocks extremely hard. He also has two of the most comfortable couches in that basement that my ass has ever had the pleasure of sitting on.

After Denny and Jen's we went to my cousin Tom's house for a graduation party for his son and my other cousin Tim's two daughters. They had good food as well. We didn't stay very long since I had to be back at American Axle at 6:00 A.M. Sunday morning.

Jack and I went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse last night for Father's day with Norm and Sass. Norm, Terrie, Brendan, and Aaron were also there. I had country fried steak and it was good.

I am really hoping I get the time off of work I requested. I am supposed to go up to Joe Lafata's cabin up by Ludington on the weekend of July 9th. If I do go Joe, Tommy, and I are going to do some recording. As much of a pain in the ass it is dragging a bunch of recording equiptment up north with me it is a really good feeling to know it's all there, ready to capture any magic (or lack of) that may occur. It should be a good time.

2005-06-23T15:19:00.000-05:00

Jennifer Wilbanks: "The Runaway Bride".

The Runaway Bride

2005-06-23T15:14:00.000-05:00

All of you have seen pictures of the "Runaway Bride" by now i'm sure. What the hell is wrong with her eyes? Is she about to be hit by a bus or something? I mean DAMN!

Work Floyd

2005-06-15T19:18:00.000-05:00

I have been working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for what seems like a long time although it has probably only been a week or so. I will be on this 7-12's schedule for awhile working down at the American Axle plant in Hamtramck on their rooftop air conditioners. Due to this constant working I probably will not be updating this blog much for a little while. I will try to update when I get a chance but lately I pretty much get up, work, shower, eat, and go to bed.

Pink Floyd and Roger Waters re-united? It's true. Click the link below for the details.

http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/

Download Update and More

2005-06-04T17:05:00.000-05:00

I have updated my music download page with the last piece from "The Paradise Tapes - Volume 1" and a "mixed bag" of other songs.

We had a good "House Music" session last night. The lineup was Tommy, Nancy, and Danielle on vox, Joe on keyboards, Paulie G on drums, and Tim Kas and myself on guitar. I played bass for the last jam of the evening.

I have a Spooky Garcia session tonight. Should be a classic.

Another Weekend In Paradise

2005-05-31T19:00:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone's Memorial Day weekend went well. As I wrote before Jackie, Aaron and I went up to The Northern Estate in Paradise for the holiday. We had a good time although we did more relaxing than anything.

Saturday we took Aaron to see the OK Corral which is a highlight of any visit to the Paradise area. We also went to the Point to see the lighthouse and to visit the giftshop where I bought yet another book of ghost stories and Jackie bought a Whitefish Point baseball hat and shirt set. For dinner Saturday night we took Aaron to the Bear Butt bar in Eckerton.

Sunday we mainly relaxed although we did go to the Yukon for lunch. Aaron and Jackie took advantage of the quiet to get some sleep while I devised a couple of new recording equiptment configurations for an upcoming musical collaboration with a certain someone from my musical past.

I had my shortwave radio with me and I received a couple of stations up there that I don't usually get down here. I logged my first ever reception of Radio Cairo Egypt, a station that has been high on my "must hear" list for a long time. I also received Radio Japan with amazing clarity. I will never again take any kind of trip without bringing a shortwave radio.

On Sunday afternoon while we were out on our Yukon run we stopped at an abandoned cottage that Jackie and I discovered about two years ago while exploring the area. I had always wanted to check out the inside of it but never got around to it. When we pulled up we noticed that the front door had been broken open so we decided to check out the inside. Upon entering and smelling that familiar "abandoned house" smell we noticed that someone had bolted a steering wheel from a car to the living room wall. I guess kids who had explored the inside in the past could have bolted the steering wheel to the wall but I really don't think so. Who would take the time to do something like that? Why would someone do that? Whoever bolted it to the wall made sure they found a stud to bolt it to. It was very solid with absolutely no movement of the wheel. My guess is that the original owners of the cottage placed it there. But why? I have explored probably close to 50 abandoned houses in my lifetime but I have never seen anything like that in one.

All in all it was a good weekend. Even better was the fact that didn't have to mess with loading and unloading recording equiptment and instruments. Other than working out the aforementioned recording equiptment schematics I didn't think about music at all which was nice.

I post below some of the "abandoned cottage" pictures.

2005-05-31T18:59:00.000-05:00

This is the abandoned cottage that Jackie, Aaron and I explored while up in Paradise this weekend.

2005-05-31T18:57:00.000-05:00

Inside the abandoned cottage.

2005-05-31T18:56:00.000-05:00

The bathroom of the abandoned cottage.

2005-05-31T18:55:00.000-05:00

Inside of the cottage we found this steering wheel bolted to the wall. Why this was is anybody's guess. It looks like it was done by the original owners of the cottage.

2005-05-31T18:54:00.000-05:00

A closeup of the steering wheel afixed to the wall.

Happy Holiday

2005-05-27T08:03:00.000-05:00

Happy Memorial Day everyone. Enjoy some hamburgers and hot dogs but if you are eating the weiners be careful that you dont take too much and choke on them.

Preparing For The Holiday

2005-05-26T06:08:00.000-05:00

Jackie, Aaron, and myself are going up north to the Northern Estate for the holiday weekend. I am so looking forward to getting up there. There are a couple things that we want to show Aaron but other than that we will just be relaxing. He has been up there before so he has seen a lot of what the area has to offer but we will be showing him some of our favorite spots such as the OK Corral and the creepy cemetary on Wildcat Road. I initially thought that I would bring some recording equiptment or instruments up with us but I have decided against it. It is just more stuff to bring up and to worry about when packing. Today I have to start getting some music together for the ride up. I usually stick to the 1920's and 30's country blues that I love so much.

Speaking of which. Does anybody out there reading this have any favorite albums to listen to while taking longer drives? Long drive music?

The Weekend

2005-05-22T09:30:00.000-05:00

Twas a good weekend. I did my "House Music" thing Friday night.

Yesterday was my grandparents 80th birthday party at my parents house. Both Jack and I had a really good time. You couldn't ask for more cooperative weather. My aunt and uncle came in from Seattle and my other aunt and uncle were in from Grand Rapids. There was a ton of great food there as well as my dad grilled pork tenderloin, hot dogs, stadium kielbasa, and hamburgers. There was a ton of fruit dips, chips, pasta salad, cheesy potatoes, ect. as well. Jack and I got the cake from the same woman who made our wedding cake.

I have been getting into the shortwave radio again lately. This morning I heard a couple new stations for the first time. I heard Ecuador HCJB on 12,005 khz and Radio Korea Intl. broadcast from South Korea on 9,650 khz. Shortwave radio rocks.

2005-05-18T15:47:00.000-05:00

This is the ARP 2500. It came out in 1970 and it is the synthesizer that I want the most.

My Mistress

2005-05-16T16:42:00.000-05:00

Although I am a married man I have a mistress. Jackie knows about my relationship with her and is suprisingly incredibly supportive of the time we spend together.

I have known her all of my life. She is wonderful, beautiful, and intelligent and makes me feel so great that I cannot imagine that anyone has ever felt better. When I am down she cheers me up. When I am mad she soothes me. If I feel worthless she gives me hope.

When I was a little boy she took me into her confidence and told me that someday I would find myself in her. I didn't know if she was lying but I wanted to believe her. Deep down inside I knew she was telling me the truth. I did find myself within her eventually and in her, I feel that my talent is unlimited and that I can accomplish anything that I want to.

It's taken me years to understand her and although I have made great strides in comprehending what she tells me I sometimes feel that she is speaking a language foreign to my own.

Sometimes I feel bad about the time I spend with her when I know I should be spending that time with Jackie but I feel helpless about needing to be with her.

She can be difficult sometimes. When I try to communicate with her she is silent. When I need her for inspiration she gives me none but I know that it will always pass and that we will be together forever.

She has been with me all of my life. Her name is Music.

Music Download Page Update

2005-05-15T13:16:00.000-05:00

I updated the download webpage today.

http://www.ic-musicmedia.com/artist_pages/artistpage.php?id=102893

I posted the first 10 pieces from "The Paradise Tapes - Volume 1" for whoever is interested in checking it out. I will post the 11th and final piece from the album next time I update the page.

The Urge To Lose

2005-05-12T15:57:00.000-05:00

I think I am ready to make a serious commitment to lose some weight. I would love to lose about 50 pounds or so. I realize that even if I lost the 50 pounds I would still be a large man because for some reason God saw fit to give me this massive bone structure that I carry around daily.

Keeping on a schedule of working out and exercising has never really been an issue for me. That is the easy part. My problem is cutting out the sweets. I have always been a chronic sweets binge eater. It is part of the very fabric of my being.

I like the thought of weighing 50 pounds less than I do right now but then I think what if I do it all in vain. I could lose the weight and look really good for a month and then get hit by a car driven by some distracted teenager. Then I would have to lie there on the sidewalk thinking "Goddamnit Life, You Son Of Bitch. You Screwed Me" as I slowly died. Or I could fall off of a roof at work and as I fell everything would go into slow motion and I would think of all the precious Take 5 candy bars I turned away from just to look good to the ground as I hit it.

If I did lose weight I'm sure it would prolong my life in someway but wouldn't that make me a procrastinator. Wouldn't I just be putting off the inevitable?

End Of The Week (a.k.a. Sweet Freedom)

2005-05-06T15:39:00.000-05:00

It is finally Friday afternoon. There is no sweeter time of the week. There really isn't. I need this weekend. My arms are sore, my ribs are sore, everything is hurting.

I'm really looking forward to creating some beautiful music with my "House Music" cohorts tonight. I dearly love my Friday night "House Music" recording sessions although tonight I am being threatened with having to be the bass player unless Aaron comes through for me.

Jack and I are going to her cousin Leo's wedding tommorrow so I have to get out my dress clothes tonight and make sure I can still fit into them. Although I have been known to drink a beer or two at her families get togethers I am not sure how much drinking I will be doing. Terrie and Ryan will not be there and I am guessing that Norm will not be coming either.

In other news I am hopelessly addicted to Hershey's "Take 5" candy bars. I have taken to buying 4 or 5 at a time and eating about 2 a day. I have always been a whore for chocolate but this is bad. I also have tried "Peanut Butter Toast Crunch" which is a different version of "Cinnamon Toast Crunch" and I see the potential for another addiction.

Message To Microsoft Front Page

2005-05-02T13:47:00.000-05:00

Message From Jeff Archer To Microsoft Front Page:

Victory Is Mine, BITCH.

Microsoft Front Page Sucks

2005-05-01T10:18:00.000-05:00

Microsoft Front Page blows so hard. It really does. Don't think for a moment that it doesn't. Please don't let it trick you into thinking that it is some really nice easy program to use where all you have to do is type some things on the screen and post a picture and then you press a button and it all magically goes onto the web.

I have redone my main website again. It's all ready to go except I can't get Front Page to transfer it over correctly. It does this to me everytime. There is always a problem. This program uses no lube on me. NO LUBE and I'm raw and I'm bleeding now.

Eat me Front Page.