Horelica House of Music Editions #5 and #6

Ok, i know i promised this last week and here we are at the end of this week, but finally, here it is.

I am very tired right now -- i'm sleep shifting for the upcoming shuttle launch. Tomorrow, i'll be getting up even earlier than i did today (was up at 5am).

Edition #5:

With Axl Rose making his way into news headlines lately, I decided edition 5 would cover a couple of Guns N' Roses albums. Perhaps one of my favorite from these two albums is "Estranged" off of Use Your Illusion II.






Edition #6:

I feel the need, the need for soundtracks. Here are two soundtracks from our collection. The version of the Top Gun soundtrack that i have doesn't have the songs located on the right side of the picture. I always wondered why otis redding, jerry lee lewis, and the righteous brothers were not included on the original soundtrack?? I still don't know, but i'm glad they finally came out with what should've been the original soundtrack.



I'm such a fan of this movie! Jack Black is too funny and i can relate to this movie in some respects.



Hope you enjoy these editions of Horelica House of Music...

Finally...and Thank You

I'm tuckered out. It's been a long day of cleaning and constructing and sweating. But it was all worth it. I finally constructed the dead space in my flowerbeds. I have added pavestone rocks to give it some appeal. I have placed some ground cover type grass to be between the pavestone. I think it looks pretty good. Definite improvement over what it was before. Here are some before and after pics:

Before:



After:




Of course, by the time we got everything in place and cleaned up, the sun was in a position to cast a nice shadow on all our hard work. Perhaps i'll take some pictures when the lighting is better.

I owe a huge thank you to my parents. Dad and I toiled in the heat and got a little dirty and sweaty. But it was worth it. Mom stayed in the air conditioned confines of the house and helped me clean the house, which was in dire need of a special touch. So, thank you Mom and Dad for all the hard work.
I'll try to keep the house cleaner...and well, I'll try to keep the flowerbeds looking nice.

Today was a good day...

Heather called...She's in Louisiana again. She thinks she might be home tomorrow! Yea!!!

Finally....and THANK YOU!!

Another Lonely Night...

Well, heather is off in the gulf somewhere for another 3 or 4 day job. Here is where she was on her first job, about 120 miles offshore of Louisiana.



With heather gone, that means i'm a lonely guy. Well, i've been busy today, so it hasn't been that bad. I have done a little cleaning today, replaced the air filters, went to band practice and went to church. So, i've been keeping busy. It's been a while since i last posted, so i'll try to catch you up on the goings on.

Roger Clemens made his first major league start of the 06 season the other night. A large group of ADCOs and family members attended the game. We were a part of Minute Maid Park history that night...setting the all time attendance record. Here are a few pictures of the night.



Here's a wide-angle view of Minute Maid Park.



Here's a good shot of Mr. Roger Clemens.



And here we are enjoying the game. Well, it could've been better!



Here's the proof that we helped break a Minute Maid Park record.

Tomorrow, I plan on finally getting around to getting my flowerbeds in order. I finally have an idea of what i want to do with the dead space that has been there for years. Tomorrow, weather permitting, i'll post some pictures of the newly landscaped flower beds.

Well, i'm gonna do a bit more cleaning before bed.
Stay tuned for Horelica House of Music editions 5 & 6. I'll post two since i've been busy this past week.

Heather's home...

I'll let her write up a trip summary later.
We're catchin' up...
Will write more later...

Need a New Car?

Check out this website for a load of great information for that next trip to the stealership, er, dealership.

This website has all you need to know about shopping for a new car and how not to get taken for a ride.

I'm sure i'll be using these tactics when heather and I go look for her new car...and perhaps i'll buy me a new one too??

Speaking of Heather, here is the latest update (as of Saturday morning.) She was still waiting on favorable conditions before they blast. The schedule was to blast today (Sunday) assuming the conditions were favorable. The original plan was to blast Friday morning, but weather has kept them from blasting. Keep looking here for the latest updates. I'm sure when she gets home you'll see some pictures that she took while out there off the coast of Louisiana.

Horelica House of Music (#4)

This week's collection comes from Heather's stash of CDs. Since she is on her way to her first off shore gig, i figured i'd pull from her collection. Heather will be on a helicopter headed out into the gulf at 8am tomorrow morning. Wish her luck.

Anyway...here are two albums from her collection:

1) The debut album from that great little band from Anaheim, CA!



2) And Heather's collection wouldn't be complete without this.



On another note, the cats despise me. Heather wasn't even out of the driveway yet and Flicker decided to yack on the carpet. Hopefully that will be the last time i have to clean up after them.

Come back tomorrow and perhaps i'll have an update from Heather to pass along to all our faithful readers (a special recognition: just so you know I know, those in Washington, Virginia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Texas.)

New Hair Style

Today i went to get my haircut. I went for a new look.
Here are a few pictures i took today...not great by any means...i need better lighting and perhaps another person to take the pictures -- heather is in palacios.

This hairstyle requires a bit more maintenance, and i haven't quite got the styling down yet, but i think i'll like it...gotta get used to it first...

06/06/06

My mom's cousin sent this site in an email:

http://catholic-resources.org/Bible/666.htm

check it out...kinda interesting, kinda funny.

Enjoy.

Horelica House of Music (#3) & NIN

Welcome to week three of Horelica House of Music. This episode is going to revolve around Nine Inch Nails. Why you might ask...simple answer; Heather and I saw NIN live last night at Cynthia Woods Mitchell pavilion. Before I get into that, here are a few NIN albums to take a look at.

1) The debut album from NIN released in 1989.



2) Here is the latest album from NIN released in 2005.



I think i got into NIN around '94. But it wasn't until '95 that I actually owned one of their(his) CDs. I say "his", cause NIN is really Trent Reznor. Not to belittle the rest of the band, but that's the way it is. Heather bought me Pretty Hate Machine somewhere in '95.

I never thought I'd go to a NIN concert! The violent nature of the concert is really what had kept me away. When i say violent i really mean the potential for moshing and thrashing about is quite high--expected even. Even though this was at Cynthia Woods, it's not unlike some energized concert goers to really get into the music. I would never be able to handle a general admission concert...there, i'd be sure to be trampled. Anyway, a pair of ticket became available and bandmate Ben and his girlfriend asked me if i wanted the tickets. Of course, knowing the tickets were under the covered reserve, it was hard to pass up.

Before the show, we went to Market Street in the Woodlands for dinner. Market Street is a quaint little open-air shopping "town". I say city, because it reminded us of the little square in "Back to the Future", nice little shops, movie theater, restaurants, etc. in a nice park square setting. We ate at a joint called Jasper's.
The swanky little restaurant had really good food, a bit pricey, but good!

Ok, on to the show. The first band, TV on the Radio, is a band from NYC. TVotR are an indie band with a nice sound. I was fairly impressed with these guys. They have a different sound. I suppose i'll be looking for some of their music next time i'm at the store. Perhaps you'll see them on an installment of Horelica House of Music?

The next band, Bauhaus, was pretty good too. Evidently they've been around since 1978 and are the founders of Goth music. Interesting? Their stage presence was...um...extravagant, yeah, that's a good word. The lead singer knows how to work the crowd and was quite entertaining. The good news is the music was good enough to not be completely weird to see him and his bandmates strut their stuff.

Now, on to Trent and company. The stage set up was more or less bare...6 or 7 large vertical light panels in the back of the stage, the usual rig lighting and a nifty "mall security gate" chain fencing that was lowered and raised at key points throughout the show. The show started out with the fence down. The neat thing about the fence is that it had LEDs all over it.

This was my first NIN show, so i figured the energy level was going to be high...i was not disappointed there. NIN came out hard and fast. Again, thinking ahead, we had earplugs. They protected well...and there wasn't a degradation in the sound...i could still hear everything. And when i say everything, i mean even the fans that try to sing back to the band and horribly butcher the song. Luckily there wasn't much of that, but every now and then you could hear someone...but i'd rather hear that, than not hear at all...And another odd surprise, heather and I didn't have anyone sitting on either our left or our right...we were not squeezed whatsoever...what a relief. That made the show even more enjoyable. I also had a pretty good view too. heather traded places with me cause there were a string of overly tall people in front of us. She said she didn't have the best view...i suppose we could've stepped to our left or right. Oh well...

Here is the setlist. I can't take credit for this list (it may not even be accurate). There were a few songs we didn't recognize.

Somewhat Damaged
You Know What You Are?
Sin
Terrible Lie
March Of The Pigs
Something I Can Never Have
Closer
Burn
Gave Up
Help Me I'm In Hell
Non Entity
Only
Wish
La Mer
Into The Void
The Big Comedown
Suck
Get Down Make Love
Hurt
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like A Hole

My favorite songs of the night were Hurt and Head Like a Hole. Once Trent started to play Hurt, some guy behind us yells out, "Alright! Johnny Cash!" Yep, for those that don't know, Johnny Cash covered Nine Inch Nails and he did a damn good job too. Head like a Hole had a lot energy and was a good way to end the show. The guitarist, Aaron North, was throwing his guitar about...and when he went to pick it up the strap had come undone. He tried to continue to play it without the strap, but that proved to be too difficult...so he chucked the guitar into a speaker cabinet. That didn't satisfy him, so he pulled it out and repeated the assault on the speaker cabinet...

All in all, it was a pretty good show. I've been a long time fan of Trent and it was cool to see him live. Although honestly, i wasn't blown away like i thought i would be. There are other concerts that rank higher than NIN, but it was still awesome to see a legend in the business. I do seem to rank it higher and higher the more i think about it, but Bowie is gonna be hard to top. I'd probably rank this concert in the top 5. What are your top 5 concerts?

Now, that i've seen him live, i can truly appreciate the DVD that i have.
Here is a bit more information about NIN.

My Monday Musing

Let's start off the week with a little alliteration. This particular past week had been busy. I spent a week on console with additional meetings to cover, putting my total to about 48 hours this past week. Pretty tiring week. There's been a lot of rain here...enough to make the grass grow at an accelerated rate and yet prevent you from mowing in a timeline fashion. Although my "scheduled" day of mowing is on the weekend and the lawn dried out enough to continue on schedule.

Finding Reason's new practice/brainstorming day is now Saturday morning. This does put a little conflict in my mowing schedule, but that task is easily movable. This weekend we worked on some new stuff and arranged some old stuff. We've worked through some technical issues with our laptops...we now just need to figure a way to do some mobile recording. The debate is still out for that...we each want a little bit different thing. We'll come to a consensus though.

Ahh...the lawn mowing task. I'm really getting annoyed with mowing the lawn...probably more so annoyed with failing equipment than the task itself, but it's still an unpleasant chore. I burned out my weed eater motor this weekend, but that's okay, i was about to replace it anyway-due to another part failure.

We have a winner: Horelica House of Music is going to be the new name of my weekly music post. Good job Ramon! Sorry Chris... Be looking for the next post. It will contain the 3rd installment of "Horelica House of Music".

Todd's Tunes (#2)

...Ok, Chris, you were the only one to suggest a name for my weekly music post. I'm not completely thrilled with it, but until a better one is suggested, Todd's Tunes it is.

This week, I dig deep into my cabinet of CDs and pull out:



That's right boys and girls...Otis Redding. I've always liked "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay" and another catchy track is "Tramp" and potentially my favorite track from this album is "The Hucklebuck". If you are lookin' for some oldies...grab this to satisfy your needs.



No collection would be complete without Bob Marley and the Wailers. I list Bob Marley as one of my influences. Although, I don't think you'd pick that up in any of my work to date. Make sure your collection has some Bob Marley.

Well, that concludes installment number 2 of Todd's Tunes, or whatever i decide to call it.

My intent wasn't to give a review of each of these albums. I could easily do that, but it'd take me forever to get these posts out. These posts were merely intended to show you what kind of music i listen to. I will also point out that some of the music may be from Heather's collection. We have a lot of CDs, so i expect this to go on for a while. Keep me honest...if i'm not postin', let me hear about it.

If you happen to pick up any of these albums you see on here, let me know, so that I know that I may have been an influence on your music selection.
Enjoy...
-Rock On-

Where have i been...

Well, i've got some catchin' up to do on my posts. But the lack of posting is not entirely my fault. The day i intended to post, blogger.com was down. So, i had to delay any postings.

This will be the first in a short group of postings...things that i wanted to post about earlier in the week.

This is my new tool cabinet. I noticed Walmart was having a Memorial Day sale on this particular cabinet. I picked this up on Memorial day before i went to work. I wasn't able to assemble it until the next day...the day that blogger was down. So I had good intentions.