40 And Holding

Whatcha talkin' 'bout....

Willis?

Jackson thinks this never gets old.

At Long Last...

Another blog LOL.

I know we're only 3 months into the new year, but let us do a quick review of the checklist of "resolution" items. You may recall I had about 10 resolutions for the year.

1. Go to church every week.  Well, I'm not not 100% on this one. I missed one week while in Hot Town, and another week during my Auntie's hour of need. Other than that, it's been pretty consistent - even hit Ash Wednesday, and our family attends family faith night once a week. So, I'll give myself a passing grade on this one.

2. Wear earplugs. I have to give myself an average score. I do well at band rehearsal with this, but whilst recording the Searching for Sanity CD I wore headsets, which were set at a moderate level to start, but for some reason kept creeping up in volume over the 5 or so hours it took me to do my parts. I wrestled with tinitus for several days after this, it got better. Then after the last gig I had it again. I'm not sure why as I had worn my earplugs. I'm suffering again some with this, so decided it's time to either 1) Quit,  2) Wear construction earplugs (I wear musicians earplugs with drop the volume about 12db). I'll go the yellow construction jobbies route for awhile before completely flushing The Dream. I love playing in a band, but it's not worth going slowly insane with the constant ringing.

3. Visit Dentist twice this year. A+. One down, one to go. The dental hygienest was absolutley gushing over the progress I made after not visiting for 7 years.

4. Practice guitar every day. I will give myself a B for this one. I haven't been as religious as in the past about this. Why? Three reasons:  1) Facebook, 2) Brothers In Arms for Wii, and 3) I'm in the playing duldrums lately. One: Thanks to Crackbook I have reconnected with almost everyone who ever meant anything to me in my life. This has been great, but is pretty addictive to once again be able to bust on my old Navy and High School chums just like old times. Two: As for "Brothers in Arms" - I don't know why Debbie does this to me. She knows I'm a horrible video game addict, and also a WWII D-Day nut. So, she goes and buys this game for the Wii where you cruise around Normandy with the 101st Airborne shooting Germans. If she wants me to quit guitar - really - just ask. I love the stupid game, and so does Jordan - even though they drop F-bombs all over the place (and he laughs). I'm a horrible parent for letting Jordan watch - but I figure maybe he'll learn something. Why, just the other night Jordan says, "Daddy, the grenade is a very useful weapon." This is important "Boy" stuff to know. Three: The playing duldrums. This happens occasionally. In my quest to be a better guitar player, I sometimes hit sticking points where I no longer improve. This is depressing. This is where I'm at now. It makes it hard to practice especially knowing that there are electronic Axis to kill.

5. Play more games with Jordan. Does "Brothers in Arms" count?

6. Build more things with Jackson. Does building plastic forts for army men after playing Brothers in Arms count?

7. Stop spending money on music crap. A+ on this one. We just got handed a 10% paycut due to hard economic times. So, no more toys.

8. Call my mother more often. Jiminey Christmas. You would not believe the ration of shit I got over this one. When my mother found out she only ranked #8 on my list, the shit hit the fan. See if I ever put her on my list again! She wasn't hearing the "the line runs both ways" defense. BTW, I think I know what Jiminey Christmas means. It has the same letters, JC, as "Jesus Cristo," which is really taking the Lord's name in vain. I think this probably slides under the ol' 4th commandment, don't you?

9. Post more often.  MONUMENTAL FAIL!

10. Be more appreciative of Debbie. I think I'm doing better. Maybe Debbie can give more perspective.

More Ridiculous Crap that Matt Likey....

Okay, who's with me? Is this commercial not laugh-out-loud funny?

Me Likey 

Musings of Christmas Past

I love Christmastime. It has always been my favorite time of year. Even as a child, I used to get jacked up for Christmas months ahead of time. I was such an elf that I would break out the previous years' JCPenny and Sears catalogs in August just to start figuring out what I wanted for the new year. Once the new catalogs came out, it was GAME ON. I had my pen out and was circling, crossing out, and re-circling like mad up until H-Hour. I remember my parents' giving us a dollar limit, so there I'd be with a calculator, the catalogs, and my pen trying different toy combinations to get as close to the limit without going over - sort of Price is Right for the holidays. I think I even believed in the Jolly Old Elf up until about 10 years of age. I kinda suspected that things weren't adding up probably around the age of 7 or 8, but I figured I had a good thing going getting all this free stuff, why rock the boat? What's the hurt in believing?

To make things even cooler, my folks were always big into Christmastime also. This was probably due to the fact that for the better part of my childhood Dad was in the Navy, which meant we were away from "home" at Christmas. I think ol' Pops would compensate by providing just mondo ginormous Christmases. We were also blessed with certain relatives who would kick in some pretty sweet giftage as well.

A typical Christmas would include Midnight Mass, followed by me not being able to fall asleep until about 3:00 in the morning. Then springing up about 6AM to check out the tree situation. There would always be just gobs of gifts, gifts flooding out from the bottom of the tree, a virtual tidal wave of wrapping paper and ribbons. We'd have unbridled avarice until all the gifts were opened. A tradition of ours is that we take turns and watch everyone open their gifts. I think it's special, and it prolongs the good times. Then we'd eat breakfast and go into present assembly and playing mode until passing out in a coma about midnight.

This tradition continues today at M&Ds house. Debbie about crapped her pants when she first witnessed it. I tried to sorta prep her in advance for the wanton gift-fest, but no amount of forewarning could prepare her for Christmas at the Chase house. Just a few years back I can recall vividly after Jackson was born. At M&Ds house we had M&D, my 2 brothers, my sister, my brother-in-law, a significant other, Debbie, myself, Jordan and Jackson. My folks have a modest-sized living room and you could literally not walk across the living room. Just incredible. And I mean incredible in a good way because let's face it - who doesn't like presents? Also, my family are great gift-givers... they "get it." What I mean is that a great gift doesn't need to be expensive (though they many times are), but it needs to be something that you "want" - a guilty pleasure perhaps. A great gift to me is one that you would really like to have, but for some reason cannot justify buying yourself because it's either expensive, or it's not practical, or it's just plain silly. When someone drops a 25-dollar Starbucks card on me, that is a great gift. My wife once bought me a Playstation. Expensive, impractical, and something I'd never dream of buying myself - but I loved that gift because it was a guilty pleasure. My sister once bought me a particular Dokken T-shirt. It was real special because it's probably the last one on earth, and she went to great lengths to find it after I combed the earth with no success. I described it to her and she tracked it down through a former road manager or something. Pretty incredible. Totally impractical, totally silly, inexpensive, and a total guilty pleasure. My first electric guitar and amp were an "early" Christmas present - pretty cool I'd say. My brother bought me a little movie player once. At first I wondered when I would ever use this movie player - I don't have time to watch movies. Well,knowhat? We played movies and movies. I could play movies in the bedroom while jamming the guitar. The kids watched movies in bed. You name it. It finally took one final fall off of Jordan's bed and died. I would have never dreamed of buying myself such a guilty pleasure. Anyway, you get the picture.

So why do I go to such lengths to describe all this? Well, it's fun to watch it with my children and I hope to pass along a Chase Christmas to them as well. Since we could not attend the annual Chase Christmas this year, I thought I'd try to paint a little picture for the family, which I will include in my next post: Musings of Christmas Present.

Back in the Saddle

... and out the other end of the tunnel. 

Sometimes in my business it goes that way. It's sometimes true what they say about the light at the end of the tunnel being a train. In this case it was. This was such an incredibly busy period that I simply could not find a moment to string together any thoughts. Since the Disneyland vacation I have put out no fewer than 6 new projects while maintaining a couple others. For those of you who do not know, my day gig is a structural engineer. So, I go with the whims of the construction market. The market for me was very busy for a period that saw a slug of projects hit my desk all at the same time.  I soldiered on as best as possible because I saw the inevitable coming like everyone in my industry. Now... well, I don't need to tell anyone what's going on now. The first thing people do is stop going to Starbucks. The next they quit building stuff. All I can say is it's a good thing that I have a budding musical career to fall back on because I'll be going to go from "Mach 2 with my hair on fire" to "Idle in the garage." But, the Good Lord will see us all through this mess I'm certain. If not, my parents' basement is still available or so I hear. It has it's own bathroom with shower, laundry room and TV, and Mom makes some pretty mean stew and there's always a pie in the offing, so either way life will go on I'm sure. God Likes Me. On with the NEWS.

The big news of course, for me personally, is that my band of 40-somethings, "Searching for Sanity" had their very first paying gig. "Paying" being a bit of poetic license. I earned two free beers, and I had to pay for the 3rd. We didn't actually make any "money" per se, because there were only 7 people in attendance, with 4 of them being the band that went on before us. So, for anyone keeping track (that would be my wife), after about 10Gs of $$s invested over this lifetime, I'm still running in the red with this music business. I am confident, however, that Iron Maiden will be ringing me up soon on the "telly" with a job offer. 

Going into the show, I had 3 goals in mind:  1) Don't throw up.  2) Don't freeze up.  3) Don't F-up.  2 out of 3 ain't bad, as I neither hurled nor forgot everything I ever knew about guitar. I did manage to F-up quite a few times, however. Fortunately again, there were only 7 people in attendance so it wasn't the end of the world. As a band, we did alright for a first time out. Overall, I was pleased with the outing. We have some work to do, but it should come together over time. The next show is on October 30th at the Tonic Lounge on Sandy Blvd. I will again go in with the same 3 goals, as I think a few more people might actually show up. Whatever will I wear?  I'm thinking of trying to wear this shirt. It fit me back in high school. Whattya think?

On the family front. Well, we got to visit the emergency room once. Jackson, the youngest, managed to cut his head all open. In my rational mind, I figured it was probably just a head cut which are known to bleed like the bejeesus. But, in my irrational "he'll be disfigured for life if not brain-damaged" mind, we erred on the side of caution and Debbie took him to the ER. It was late at night naturally. So, a few hours in the ER, and $800 later, Jackson comes home with a gob of glue holding his little cut together. You think gas is expensive, try ER glue at about 8 million bucks a barrel. It was a glob the size of a dime and it was 8-hundy. That was some horse that made that glue is all I can say about that. For that kind of bank, it had better have been Seattle Slew.

All Jackson would say about all this is: "Jordan's a poopie head."

"Jordan's a poopie head. My name is Jackson, and I APPROVE this message."

Not to get political, but on the political front. I have two choices, one wants to tax the rich. One doesn't. The rich guys build buildings which in turn keeps me working. Gee... Whoever will I choose? Sometimes, the answers in life are just that simple.

Sometimes you're the hammer....

Sometimes you're the nail. Today I'm a 10-penny nail being driven by a sledge hammer. I'm absolutely crushed at work lately. 8 projects in design phase, 4 projects in construction phase. Between work and preparing for the first "Searching for Sanity" gig in less than two months I'm busier than a 3-legged cat in a shit-scratching contest. So folks, bare with me if things are bare in this little corner of the universe.

Off to Disneyland

Whelp beaches, there's a scrapbook page needing filling, so it's time to go.  See y'alls in about a week.  4 days at chez Mickey, 3 days in San Diego.  First plane trip for the boys. 

Just a little quickie before I leave:

Jackson:  Daddy, Jordan's being a Butt-nugget.  Buh... Buh... Buh... Butt-nugget starts with "B".

Kung Foolery Pt 2.

This blog will be a testament to the lengths I'll go for my METAL, how difficult it really is to Keep the Faith... how utterly ridiculous I can be about this whole music bidness.

The bummer part is that I wrote this blog last night - it didn't save. So, again I will try and hope this one sticks.

Symphony X with Epica and Into Eternity - April 17th, 2008 - Hawthorn Theater.

But, wait just a minute, this is about kung fu, yes? Yes. This was stacking up to be a very busy day indeed. First, the day started with a work visit which had me walking around a building all day long. Then, I had Kung Fu in the early evening, followed by the Symphony X show later that night. Shouldn't be no big thing I figure. I'll do the walk-through, put on the Kung Fu gear for some light-spirited ass-kicking, do a quick change into the METAL gear, and off to the show for some ear bleeding prog rock with my new BFF band, Symphony X. Now, if you have read the Concert Calendar, you will know that the last time I saw SymX, they absolutely killed. Furthermore, they did permanent damage to my ears leaving me with a probably lifetime of tinitis. That is METAL, kiddies - that's life in the bigs - that's Keeping the Faith.

So, I get to Kung Fu. On this particular night we were working on something called "Monkey Rolls." A Monkey Roll is a technique where the object is to be able to fall down (as if pushed), do a roll on the ground and pop up ready for ass-kicking - all without injuring yourself. It's sort of like a somersault, but if done correctly, gentler on your self. We do this on a mat. I cannot even imagine doing it on concrete, or God forbid - the floor of the Roseland men's room. So, let's just make a mental note to avoid any conflicts in there. Also, I ALWAYS hurt myself somehow doing these damned rolls. Pinched neck, bruised thigh, scraped up knee - you get the idea. So, I'm rock-and-monkey-rolling right along there, when all of a sudden I spring up and just F-up the hell out of my big toe. It bleeds a little, I wipe it off, it stops, and I soldier on. By the end of class it's throbbing a little. I figure a few C&Cs at the show should make things all better, so I get dressed up and head to the show.

So, I get to the show. I miss the first opener which was a bummer, since I enjoyed Into Eternity last time I saw them - and then hit the bar for a couple of Crown and Cokes. My toe is still throbbing. In fact, it was tough to drive all the way across town seeing as my car is a manual. It hurt to walk to the joint. But, that's R&R, right?

I will say this to start. I will probably never see another show at the Hawthorn Theater. The sound system, to me, sounds like poo. All I could hear was boom boom boom, bass, bass, bass. The floor rumbled, and it just sounded like mud to me.

So, the 2nd opener takes the stage - Epica. Epica is what you might call Euro Power Metal. For the uninitiated, this is how I would describe Euro Power Metal: If you took Sir Lancelot, Guinevere, Merlin, Bilbo, Frodo, Gandalf, and that Professor Dumbledorf guy from Harry Potter, stuck them all in a room with guitars, amps, and 16-sided die, a week later a Euro Power Metal band would emerge. Typically, the musical topics include dungeons, dragons, an epic crusade of some kind, some swordplay, and a climactic battle between good and evil - usually all in one song. Also, no song can be any shorter than 10 minutes. There will be several tempo changes, some growling, and if you're lucky a dwarf will dance about the stage. If it is a serious Euro Power Metal band, you will hear pan flutes. As you can probably guess, I'm not a huge fan of the genre. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to diss Epica or any other Euro Metal band, but it's just not my bag. On the upside, the musicianship is usually stellar. But, I just can't get past the whole Society-for-Creative-Anachronism thing. But, back to Epica. The problem I have with Epica is that every song is - well - Epic. I'm just a simple creature, I like songs about boobs, liquor, fast cars, boobs, the occasional romp into history, good and evil, more boobs, and Metal songs about playing Metal. I even like metal songs about God, because God is Metal. If I want Middle Earth I'll watch the trilogy - I have the boxed set. In fact, SymX is the closest thing to Power Metal that I can handle. The saving grace for me at least was that the singer was a super hot chick. She had a great voice and big lungs. So, they're playing on and on, saving Middle Earth, and my toe is frigging hurting bad. 2, 3, 4 C&Cs later, and I'm standing there and really starting to smart. Finally, about 3 days later Epica dispenses with the dragon and closes their set.

Now, some Epica fan will likely write me a scathing email saying that Epica, in fact, does not sing about all this D&D business - and that they truly rule. This may be true, since with the utterly horrid sound system I have generally no clue what the songs were about. I am generalizing totally. But, they were all 10 minutes long, I heard Pan Flutes and growling - so I'm probably 50% correct. So, apologies to Epica fans if apology is due. Epica sounded as good as possible with this crappy PA. Please do not cast a spell on me, because I believe in that shit.

Symphony X takes the stage, and I'm juiced because I just loves me some SymX. Well, by this time I can barely stand up anymore my foot is just throbbing so bad. I can't drink any more liquor since I have to drive. I can't get to the front of the stage because I might get stepped on, and I can't sit down since there's no seats at this joint. This probably colored my SymX experience this night. I was just not having fun at all. The sound system was poor. I know that SymX sounds awesome, but somehow it's just missing me. But, the rest of the crowd was into it - there was a mosh pit - so maybe it was just me, maybe I was in the wrong place. I don't know, but I was actually ready to go home once the show was over. I'll not rate the show out of fairness to Sym X, because I know they're fantastic, and it was probably just me.

I get home and go through the normal post-concert delousing. Shower and throw the smokey clothes in the wash, when I notice that my toe is huge and Black. It skipped past black and blue and went right to Black. It's so black that I have to wake Debbie up because I think it's Gangrene. She says, "yeah, it's black, you'll live." Some bedside manner.

I go to the doctor the next day. Turns out no broken bones, just hurt bad. The doctor does not even have the decency to prescribe me Vicadin. Doesn't this quack know that the Vitamin V is my Drug of Choice? What's a brother gotta do to scores him some Vikes? "Take some Ibuprofen." Ibuprofen my ass, I'm dying over here, and my foot's gangrene.

Well, all's well that ends well. Like Debbie promised - I lived.

Kung Foolery Pt. 1

When you're 40 and Holding, you are in constant search for activities and events which will supplement your mid-life crisis. Mid-life crisis you ask? I'm not denyin' that we are full-throttle into probably the 1st third of the MLC. What other sane 40-something would be going to METAL shows, playing guitars, watching auto racing, and considering taking up smoking?

I've never really been all that exceptional at much in life, and having an MLC is no different. If I was going to do it proper, I would have a mid-20s girlfriend, a Beemer or Hummer H3, and a golf membership. But, I don't make enough to support two households, and I'm too set in my ways to be kicked out of my house only to live in a studio apartment or in my parents' basement - so the young girlfriend idea is out. Besides, my wife said she would have no problem "doing time" after running me over with a car if I were to stray. I don't really like Beemers all that much since I've already owned 3 German cars in my lifetime - each of them needing constant maintenance, and a Hummer just screams male inadequacy. Ever notice that Hummer commercials follow directly behind the "male enhancement" commercial? Finally, I really reaally reheheheheeaaallly stink at golf, so that's out.

So what does that leave? Well, Kung Fu of course. The Martial Arts in general, are something I've had a lifetime fascination with - as have all boys. But in all seriousness, I was looking for something to do for exercise sake. A few years ago I began to notice joint pain. Pain for no particular reason. Knees, elbows, hips, shoulders - everything hurt. I decided that it was probably inactivity that caused this. The catch of this of course being that I'm 40, have all these commitments already, and am basically lazy and don't care much for organized sports. So I'm going down the list of possible physical activities I could do:

1. Running? We all know running is just plain "unfun." Why would anyone want to run? It hurts, everything about it hurts, and besides I'm not skinny. Ultimately, it's just easier to walk or drive wherever you're going. I just don't get it. Besides, running is bad on your joints - which was my problem originally.

2. Biking? Well, I don't want to have to shave my legs or become a militant "bike vs car" guy. The seat hurts my ass, and nothing ruins a nice hike with my son like some other 40-somethings blitzing down the trail out of breath and sweating hard. Besides I'm a republican - so bikes are out.

3. Weightlifting? This is something I HAVE done and can speak with some authority on. I did it pretty hardcore for a few years in the Navy, and have done it off and on for the last 15 years. The problem with weights is that you must be consistent, and it is plain, undiluted, friggin' boring. Bodybuilding cannot be approached casually, you have to either do it full-on or don't bother at all. Anything in between will just lead to soreness, injury, and making an already unfun pastime even more unfun. Once in awhile just won't cut it for weightlifing. And since my typical week involves a trip to some other town or state, watching the boys at night for my wife's class, attending a meeting of some kind, a night or two of overtime, and the mandatory METAL... well, there isn't much time for weights.

Of course there are zillions of things one could do, but you get my drift - I can make up an excuse to NOT do anything - call it a gift. I'm good at arguing, and can generally argue any side of an issue - probably one of the reasons I can never start anything.

So, my wife found an ad in the local paper for a Kung Fu school here in town, and after 25 years of thinking about it (remember, I'm horrible at starting anything), I attended my 1st class. It's not Kung Fu in the classical sense, but an American discipline which combines several forms of Martial Arts into a style called Kajukenbo. It was fun I guess, but more importantly, it was interesting and perhaps useful. You can take it as far as you want. You could go all-out, or be like me and just take it for the stretching and physical movement aspect of it all. I've been doing it for about 4 months, and so far so good. My particular school is very inexpensive and quite casual - which works for me. So far, I've had my ass kicked by men and women ranging between 50 and 15 years old. I am the oldest student, and at the "bottom of the dojo" as Kramer would say. But, more importantly, my joints feel better, and I've had a noticeable improvement in balance. Though I'm not really losing weight per se, I am not gaining any. I feel pretty good about it overall. And, last week I passed my 1st promotion to "White/Purple Sash", which is a half-step from White to Purple. Will I ever reach black? Not likely as that would mean true commitment, but it's an interesting thought. But as Bruce Lee once said, "a belt is only good for holding up your pants." And nobody's more METAL than Bruce Lee.

Next installment: Broken toe meets Symphony X.