Old Man
Owner / Co-Host
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Get The Cordovas new album for free
I totally didn’t know this, but one of my favorite singer sonigwriters Joe Firstman, is in a new band according to his twitter feed today. (If you haven’t heard Joe’s War Of Women go get it and thank me later)
The new band is called THE CORDOVAS and they are a great mix of southern charm, rock, harmonies and a dash of rural flavor.
You can get the album in itunes super cheap right now (4.99) BUT Joe tweeted that you can download The Cordovas album for FREE at their website. (it’s legit!)
Get it, try it out, see how it feels.
Go See A Show
Saw This Meme on Bittergirl’s Facebook:
Occupy A Fucking Venue
Quite honestly, I couldn’t have said it better myself. We try not to be political on our show. Crude, drunk and biased humor yes… but two things we don’t talk about are religion and politics…. Unless Dean makes fun of hippies or communists (yes I am aware of the contradiction on our own policy)
One thing we do support is local live music. I’m proud of the place I spent my teenage years in. It was the perfect punk rock environment for me. When I was coming up and punk rock was fun and dangerous, we would pack Sun Valley, Marios, and any other place we could with shows of 300 to 400 people easy peasey. No sweat.
As the years go by and people trade in their skateboards for drudgery, and new kids are no longer angsty… shows are lucky sometimes to get 30 to 40 people. Where are you at?
As long as there is oppressive government, people making rules for us, city ordinances, cover bands, and God Forbid D-bag show goers, this place should be filled with punk rockers and kids fed up with the way things are. Instead? The new generation is ripe with kids bitching about being bored on facebook, and hardcore has turned into a fashionable event with kids wearing skintight pants and neon colors that would make New York and DC’s hardcore pioneers puke and roll over from their young graves.
Victoria used to not be about that. It used to be a group of people who dug each other because they were tired of hearing a cover band like Ryhthm Of The Road play another damn weekend in a club we could easily dominate. But now, if you say you are from here, you get even less respect. Its sad that all the local bands we know go out of town to get more respect than the people who live here now. Even this podcast has it’s hometown woes. We have listeners all over the US, and in Houston Texas a few hours away we have the most subscribers, but in Victoria, we cant even get people to take a free koozie or sticker. So what happens? We cover a lot of shows out of town, but we aren’t going to let apathy win.
We stick to it, still make shows, still hock our shit, still support these bands. These bands, the real ones. They are like sharks they have to keep swimming or they will die. I hope one day people wake up and see the talent they have in their back yard.
Star Wars Fan Days
Any regular listener to our podcast, and any normal acquaintance of mine in real life, can tell you that if you spend any normal amount of time with me and my humble band of merrymakers, the conversation is eventually come into something Star Wars related. There are no apologies for this, especially among our music minded podcast group with our varying interests and backgrounds. Science Fiction stands as the glue and the underlying theme that keeps us a happy working family.
I have expressed my particular love for the trilogy in my blog and various other writings before. It’s not hard to understand why a small town kid who feels like an outcast in a rural area would identify with a certain young lad on a moisture farm who longs to live among the stars far away from home.
As I have become an adult(?) I have grown quite fond of the concept called gainful employment which has allowed me to chase my old childhood obsession of all things Sci Fi, in particular the Star Wars trilogy. The most recent excursion in pursuit of my personal white whale was this past weekend at Star Wars Fan Days in Dallas/Irving Texas.
The event is chock full of things for the fan to do and see. In addition to celebrities and Star Wars talent in movies and the animated series, there were also Star Wars authors, fan clubs and artists participating in a variety of panels autograph and meet and greet sessions.
We arrived on Saturday afternoon, about 230 in the afternoon after a 5 hour drive. The fact that we were a little late meant that we shucked the panels that day in favor of walking around (which I am not sure was a great idea, there were great panels including a Q&A session with Billy Dee Williams). In the dealer and artist area we walked and perused through aisle after aisle of comic book, toy, and clothing dealers selling any kind of nerd item your heart has desired. (including a Starship Enterprise model I’ve been stalking online) as well as artists selling prints of their work. This alone kept us busy until the show’s close as we bought prints, sketches and comics.
After that, we took some time to go upstairs to check out the fan clubs. Of course the 501st had their own room where they talked about the fine points of making imperial armor and movie quality gear, always awesome the 501st. Next door was the Dented Helmet club which focuses on making Boba Fett armor and other variations of the super commando outfit. Next door to that was the R2 builders club which makes R2 units. The R2 room was clearly the biggest hit with kids as they ran around playing with free roaming R2 units who interacted with the kids, posed for pictures and booped and beeped to kids’ screaming delight.
The night on Saturday was spent podcasting with John Lara from Robot Bullt (www.robotbully.com) which is an awesome web comic with a very cool stylistic cartoon style and inside fanboy humor. After the podcast and a healthy couple of hours in the pub, we got ready for day 2.
Day 2 was spent in panels mostly. I sat in two author driven ones as they led workshops in writing. Timothy Zahn’s was probably the most interesting one because it was very audience driven. After the panels I went back to the floor, hung out with John at his both and made last minute purchases of prints.
The 5 hour drive back was horrible but I was fueled by the adrenaline of the awesome loot I got and the experience I enjoyed that I have been doing for years. It wasn’t my first Fandays, it’s not my last. I love these things, and being among like minded people make me happy. The best though, was the kids. I watched with awe as these kids played with light sabers and marveled at costumes that adults made fun of and complain about the prequels. The thing is the adults didn’t get it. Star Wars is for the kids, that’s why my dad probably hated C3PO in my day, but if Anthony Daniels shows up to an event people my age race for an autograph. I laugh to myself as adults my age groan at the prequels who have obviously forgotten what it was like to be a kid and let magic just happen. That’s one thing I do everytime I go to one of these events.
intense
chaos in the R2 room
Just Hangin' Around...
