Being a musician, I always looked at games like Guitar Hero and thought "what a joke, this is nothing like playing a real guitar". My little brother bought the game a while back and up until recently, I used to think to myself how lame it is and how if he put that much effort into playing a real instrument that he would actually be good.

Well recently I broke down and tried the game while I was visiting my parents house after my brother persistently bugged me to give it a shot. I Picked up the controller and had the attitude that since I play a REAL guitar that this would be a walk in the park. Well as usual I was wrong. My brother quickly put me to shame and left me wanting to play again and again until I could beat him.

It's been about 2 weeks since that incident and I now own the damn game and have beaten it on "medium" difficulty. My brother still kicks my ass at it and now I'm hooked. The game is like a freaking virus. Not only have I become hooked, but my wife, who I thought was the one person who would never even attempt to play it, is hooked as well.

So now I spend an hour getting my ass kicked by all the 12-year-olds-on X-Box Live, and then I run to my garage, pick up my real guitar and start shredding just to feel better about myself.

Who knows, maybe after more practice I can become a real "Guitar Hero".

Lately I have been working 6-7 days a week. My regular shift (no overtime) consists of 12 hour shifts, 3 days a week. I am suppose to have 4 days off every week, but I have been working way to much overtime.

Not this week. I just turned my phone and pager off, cleaned my motorcycle (hope it doesn't rain), and stocked my beer fridge. I'm ready  to take a  break for a change. 

Screw work, I don't want the extra money this week.

Anyone know of any good bands playing this weekend?

I decided to post some songs that I recorded. All the songs are covers, being that I am not much of a writer. I play all the instruments on all the tracks (Guitar, Bass, Drums) and sing as well. I'm pretty new to recording, so these tracks are not by any means perfect. I'm an amature guitar/bass player and do fairly well on drums. Please let me know what you think, as well as what I can do to improve the quality of my recordings (constructive criticism only please).

The following is the equipment used

Software - Cool Edit Pro
Amp - Custom Quad 100 DFX
Guitar - Fender Strat
Bass - Some P.O.S. that was handed down to me
Drums - Roland V-Drums

It seems that lately I cant drive a half a block without seeing "Shame on (fill in the blank)". I find this type of protest to be rather annoying. I have my serious doubts that Mercy Hospital, Action Sports, Ashley Furniture, Lawyers Offices, Paragon Salon, etc, are all having a labor dispute (as if they would all be part of the same union).

From what I understand these protests are a last effort from a local carpenter union to "bully" businesses into hiring union labor. How lame is that? That's like a little kid going to your door asking you if he can mow your lawn, and when you say no, he stands outside and throws a fit.

It it pretty obvious that the people holding these signs are not carpenters either. Which means they must be paid protesters. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I am going to assume that they probably don't have much luck forcing their way into jobs.

I am a union employee (International Association of EMT's and Paramedics), and I must say that I would be pretty upset if my elected representatives were using my dues to fund such a worthless project.

In conclusion I must say "Shame on you.....whoever the hell you are"

Lately I have been very disappointed with our elected officials (not that I have ever been thrilled with them). It saddens me to see such a great country headed in such a bad direction. The politicians running this country (both democrat and republican) all do the same thing. They make promises that we all know they can't keep. But for some reason we keep them in office.

I am a registered Republican. That's no secret to anyone that knows me. However, I must say that my party affiliation does not mean that I approve of what the guys I voted for are doing. I am not happy with our president or our governor. The only thing stopping me from registering as an independent, is my right to vote in the local primary elections.

I believe in what the Republican Party is suppose to stand for. Smaller government, more power to the people and taking responsibility for our own actions. I don't believe that taking guns out of my house will prevent criminals from killing (or any law abiding gun owner for that matter). I believe that tightening our borders and making the prisoners work the fields is the easiest solution to our border problem. Every day I go to work I see people who live off the system. They refuse to work, and we as tax payers just get to keep paying for it.

I lost count of the amount of times President Bush has promised to secure our borders. Look George, making new laws isn't going to do a damn thing if we aren't going to enforce the ones we already have.

Donny Youngblood stated during his campaign for Sheriff that he is a "strong" supporter for concealed carry permits. Of course, being the politician he is (if he's an elected official, he's a politician), he changed his story after taking the job. Now he states that we need a "valid reason" to carry. How about this Donny, I work for a living, I abide by the law, and I, as an American, have a right to protect myself.

I think its ridiculous that people actually believe Hillary Clinton when she says that she will bring socialized medicine to this country. She knows as well as I, that such a drastic change isn't going to happen. Nobody thinks about all the healthcare / insurance employees that would lose jobs. Hillary damn sure knows what such a thing would do. That's why she is going to promise and "sympathize" her way to the White House. But mark my words, she will never do a damn thing once she takes office (if she gets elected).

And for my last bitch. The war in Iraq. Whether we had a legit reason or not to go, it doesn't matter. We started this crap, now we need to end it.I think we need to let the military fight the war. NOT the politicians. First rule, NO CAMERAS. Its war, it sucks, but if we are going to "win" this disaster, we need to quit dicking around and just get it done. Oh yea, and I guarantee you that nobody is going to take the troops home any time soon. Whether it be a republican president or democrat. Their politicians, they have the part of their brain missing that controls honesty. America won its last war a long time ago. From this point on, we will continue to start fights, then back out when the general public starts getting outraged.

You can pretty much sum up everything I just talked about by breaking down the word "politics". Poly meaning "many", and tics.....well everyone knows what a tic is. A blood sucking parasite.

Saving lives. It's what we do......right? That's not exactly the story tonight (09/10/07).

I started off the shift responding to an ambulance request for an unknown medical problem. I show up to find a kid complaining of a tooth ache that started 2 days ago. Now since I have had my teeth hurt in the past I do sympathize for this young man's pain, however, this is not exactly what I consider to be an emergency. The funny part about this particular call, was the fact that my partner was complaining about a tooth ache minutes before we were dispatched. Maybe I should consider being a dentist.

Anyway, as the night goes on, we transported a drunk guy, a lady with a scratch on her knee and someone who just "wasn't feeling good". Not to mention the 3 other people who called, only to refuse treatment. One lady stood up swinging her fists demanding that we "get the F*$ out her apartment now". My partner, myself, and the firemen all replied with "see ya" in the most sincere way that we could at 2am.

The rest of the night pretty much consisted of me passed out sleeping in the passenger seat waiting for 5am to roll around.

As I sit here trying to jam to "Walking in the shadow of the blues" by Whitesnake on my guitar, I realize that I'm no Dough Aldrich (or Reb Beach for that matter), and probably never will be.

I know some people get inspired by the monsters of guitar like Van Halen, Brent Mason, Sammy Hagar, Eric Clapton, etc. I, on the other hand seem to get discouraged by them. I don't know if its the lack of time that I have to actually put into improving my guitar playing, or if my confidence just sucks. Either way, it seems pretty obvious that I will never be seen on a stage in front of tons of people shredding away on some screaming guitar solo :(

The same goes for my drumming now that I think about it......

Oh well, I guess the world needs paramedics just as much as it needs rock stars.

The past couple weekends I have had the opportunity to go out and check out the local bands. If you know me, you know that my work schedule and personal schedule rarely allow such a thing to take place. For a long time I was feeling that the music scene was headed downhill in a hurry. However, I must say that the past few weekends have proven my theory wrong.

As you might remember from my previous post (Drunken Rampage), I made reference to a "Kick Ass" funk band that played at Fish Lips (for the life of me, cant remember the name). They had something going on that I have not seen in a local band in a long time. They were tight, had a tasteful mix of instruments and didn't play the same songs that every other cover band in the town plays. Even though I was heavily intoxicated, I still had the ability to recognize talent when I saw it.

Last night (08/31/07) I headed to the Crystal Palace and Fish Lips. I was able to see the Buckaroos play for about an hour while enjoying delicious food and a large Sam Adams. Of course the Buckaroos did a great job as usual (Buck wouldn't settle for anything less). The band that played after Buck's band, however was a different story. They aren't a bad band, but they just tend to play the same songs every night. I don't think their set list has changed in almost 7 years. Maybe it's just because I have played in country bands on and off ever since I started playing, but I am really sick of hearing "All my Exes" and "Tulsa Time" every time I walk through the swinging doors of some "Honky Tonk".

After leaving the palace, I was back to my theory on the downfall of local music. That is, until I got to Fish Lips. There was a band called "Seed" playing. They mainly played music in the style of Reggae / Alternative Rock. They were talented, tight and once again didn't play all the mainstream songs. I was impressed by the amount of good music that was created by a 3 piece band. It was nice to be back to embarrassing my wife while playing my "air guitar" instead of bitching and picking apart the band.

I must say that I no longer believe that the "Bakersfield Sound" in general will be taken over by Karaoke DJ's and Jukeboxes, however I do believe that local country bands need to wake up and smell the emptiness of the clubs they are playing at.

So last night (August 26, 2007) I started my drunken rampage through the night at a Japanese restaurant called Tokyo Gardens. Between the awesome steak, rice, sushi, beer and saki, I was feeling good. Me and Nick sat at a table full of people from Czechoslovakia. I couldn't understand a word they were saying, but I managed to recommend to them what beer they should order.

After dinner we headed out for the Crystal Palace. I made a bet that the house band would either be playing "Tulsa Time", "Mustang Sally", or "Sweet Home Alabama", being that they haven't changed their set list in 8 years. Of course they were just ending "Tulsa Time". After about 10 minutes of the singer talking, they began to butcher a perfectly good Alan Jackson song. We didn't even stay long enough to hear them finish the song.

Next we headed to Trouts. It has been at least a year since I stepped foot in that place. The only thing that has changed there is the band. Same drunks, telling the same lies, dancing to the same songs that every band in town plays night after night. The best part of my Trouts adventure (not counting the drinking) was that I managed to convince people that I am an oil field worker named Joe Henderson and that I live right across the street on Decatur. Gotta love idiots.

So my next stop on the drunk tour was FishLips down town. I showed up to find a kick-ass funk band playing. After ordering a couple drinks I took a look around, only to find that me and Nick were probably the only white people there. Not to be racist or stereotypical, but you just don't normally see that many black people down town. It took about 10 minutes and a couple drinks before I was out on the dance floor getting my grove on with the rest of the crowd to "Lady's Night" and "Super Freak". I'm sure that I some how managed to embarrass myself, being that I absolutely can't dance.

On my way out of FishLips I managed to run in to 2 people that I have picked up more than once in the ambulance. I finally got to say "Who's the drunk idiot now Beeeeoootch???!!!"

So we ended the night at the best place in the down town area. That's right, the cigar bar. Unfortunately it was too late to order beer, so I just picked out the biggest stogie I could find and burned it down before heading home.