Skipping over all of the boring stuff, the line-up was figured out, a date was set, and a venue was booked for the show. Okay, now you can get excited again because I'm about to tell you some important information about the gig.

Between me and Bill (my partner for TSS), we managed to get 6 amazing bands for this show. Who are they? I'm glad you asked, they are: Lo-Pan (Columbus, OH), Devil to Pay (Indianapolis, IN), Death Valley Dragline (Lansing, MI), Forged in Flame (Cleveland, OH), Chapstik (Detroit, MI), and Low of the Low (Chicago, IL). These are some of my absolute favorites from the Midwest, and I have had the pleasure to see most live before, and they don't disappoint. The ones that I haven't seen, I've heard are awesome, as well.

All of these bands will be sharing one stage on August 07, 2010 at Mac's Bar (2700 E Michigan Ave, Lansing, MI 48912). The doors, as of right now, are slated to open at 7, and the first band to go off will be at 8. Each band will be playing approximately 30-40 minute sets.

We will be selling tickets ahead of time for the show. At this point in time, they will cost you a very reasonable $5 if you pre-order. If you wait until the day of the show to get your ticket, it will cost you still reasonable $8. To pre-order your tickets, please send an email to fuzzapalooza@thesodashop.us. We will provide you with any information required. Please note that ticket prices are subject to change. However, if you get your tickets now and the prices go UP, you will not be charged the difference. Ticket sales are NOT refundable.

Any other information requests can be directed to the same email just mentioned above. We will be happy to answer any questions you may have regarding the show.

FUZZAPALOOZA LINKS

VENUE:
Mac's Bar: www.macsbar.com

BANDS:
Lo-Pan: www.myspace.com/lopandemic / www.lopandemic.com
Devil to Pay: www.myspace.com/deviltopay / www.deviltopay.net
Death Valley Dragline: www.myspace.com/deathvalleydragline
Low of the Low: www.myspace.com/lowofthelow / www.lowofthelow.com
Forged in Flame: www.myspace.com/forgedinflame
Chapstik: www.myspace.com/chapstik / www.chapstikbomb.com

SPONSORS:
The Soda Shop: www.myspace.com/sodashopradio / www.thesodashop.us

EVENT LINKS:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/fuzzapalooza / www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=125893564092899
MySpace: events.myspace.com/Event/4106206/Fuzzapalooza-w-Lo-Pan-Death-Valley-Dragline--more
Last.fm: www.last.fm/festival/1535994+Fuzzapalooza

My new partner's name is Bill Goodman, and he lives in Chicago. He and I share an immense affection towards stoner rock and keeping up with all of the best bands the genre has to offer. This coupling with Ron being distant and effectively non-existent in helping the station out, it seemed like a good idea to get a new partner. Some of you may remember the post regarding finding someone new a few months ago. At that point, Ron had somewhat resurfaced, and The Soda Shop was slightly redefined at that point, but it didn't take long for talks to stop and The Soda Shop go back in hiding. This time, I was greeted with an opportunity to change things, and I took it. I think this was the obvious decision to make.

This occurrence happened to be just in time for The Soda Shop's first birthday. That's right, The Soda Shop is officially one year-old as of Monday, February 22. Along with this, the stream is back up and running (it should be accessible from the site again tonight), and there will be quite a few changes to The Soda Shop's website and operation, some things you won't see, many things you will. I feel most of these changes are fairly obvious, common sense changes. Things aren't working as they should, or they're lacking in parts, and the changes will fix these issues. Hopefully, they'll start rolling out in the near future. We don't have any timeline set for right now, but we should have one here fairly soon, so we can get things going.

Oh, and we have a temporary blog set up until the web site can support an actual news management system. It's using WordPress, of course. View it here: http://thesodashop.wordpress.com

Don't get me wrong, I'm still very much a cynic. However, I use my cynicism as a way to proceed through life with caution. I know what people are capable of, and I know what people are like, but I've stopped seeing people as an evil to the greatest extent. I've accepted that wisdom is more important than intelligence. Learning from one's mistakes is what's important, not avoiding mistakes. I've stopped dwelling on existence and started living my existence. This doesn't mean I've fallen victim of the world's ideals instead of my own, but I've opened myself up to accept that the while the world's ideals are different, they may not ALWAYS be the worst and without reason.

Basically, I've allowed myself to break out of a shell, continue enjoying the simple things in life, and have stopped looking at the world in such a negative light that I see past the beauty and complexity of life. I've allowed myself to just go with the flow and stopped looking at the negatives of every situation. I am not entirely successful, and I feel myself bitching about things that I let happen, but progress has been and is being made. I haven't quite let go of everything that holds me back, but I'm making progress, and that's what matters. As long as I continue to let myself open up to the world, I can only improve.

In other words, self-important cynics need to chill the fuck out. They need to drink some alcohol, listen to music, go out with friends, and allow themselves to forget that the world sucks, if even just for a few hours. Life is well too short to worry about others. Life is too short to think you're superior to everyone else, regardless if it's true or not (hint: it's not). Stop dwelling on the unknown, and accept that it's just that... the unknown. Always seek answers, always be cautious, but don't consume yourself with the unimportant.

If you're, at all, interested in the blog I'm talking about. I'll link you. Head on over yonder: http://tanoposteraro.blogspot.com/2010/02/idealism.html

Since I haven't talked about politics in months, I'll start off with that. First and foremost, I never did approve of Obama, and surprise surprise, that has not changed one bit. He's still pretentious, arrogant, ignorant, and, most importantly, wrong on just about everything. The only things that I do agree with him on (being some social liberties) are things that he has simply put on the back-burners. I would be able to respect him if I thought he actually gives a damn about people rather than his own, reckless agendas. He's not really all that different from Bush, as he attacked McCain on. It's the pot calling the kettle African-American. To further my point that he's no different than Bush, what has he done in Iraq and Afghanistan? Last I heard, Obama was planning on sending MORE troops to Afghanistan. And here I thought that he campaigned on the ideas that he was going to try to LESSEN our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Right about now I feel it's the right moment to say, "I told you so" to all of the people that thought he was actually going to follow through with those sorts of promises. He's managed to push his reckless economic stimulus packages through (Bush did the same, though), and he has started the dismantling of Capitalism in healthcare which is bound to help improve things. Hahahaha. Sorry, I thought I could keep a straight face on the last one. So nearly one year later, and I'm still just as cynical towards this fraud.

In other news, I have been given a new position at Anesthesia Business Consultants. After about 7 months of working as a Customer Service representative, I was given a position that I had applied for. I moved out of Customer Service to become the assistant head of a different department. It's now full-time with benefits, a nice increase in pay, and I'm able to prove myself capable of thriving in not just Customer Service but potentially any department, as well as showing that I can lead. If I don't screw this up, then the company will really see me as an asset, and I can't imagine they'd want to lose me. Not to stroke my own ego, but I am far more than just someone's who's easily replaceable. I have substance, loyalty, and ambition. It doesn't hurt that I'm male in a largely female-dominated workplace.

Even though I'm working full-time, I've been getting the itch to start designing a little more. I haven't touched things in almost 3 months, and it's probably time that I hop back in. I could always use some extra cash, and if I could score some freelance work, it'd be nice to have. I just need to get my name out there and convince people that they need my services. This would include actually finishing my website to the point that it's respectable to show, and I really could use my new business cards. As of right now, they're just sitting in an .ai file and not doing anything productive for me. I should probably go out and mingle with people more, too. It's kind of a tall order, but it's completely doable.

Oh! I got a new phone, too. It is the HTC Hero through Sprint. Once I discovered this phone, I immediately fell in love. I got it the day that it was released, and there really isn't much to complain about. At times, it can be a bit sluggish, but I am not in such a hurry that I need everything to load immediately. Though, it's not even that significant to begin with. The battery life is probably my biggest gripe, but I'm never too far away from somewhere that I can charge it, and it usually lasts me 12-24 hours depending on how heavy the usage is. I, definitely, feel that I made the right choice in phones. Even my brother likes my phone. He's due to get a new one and switch to Sprint, as well. As I've become kind of an Android fanboy, I've been pushing him towards the Hero or the Samsung Moment. He says he doesn't want to get the Hero because I already have it, otherwise he would. While I think it's a ridiculous reason to not get a phone that you like, it's probably smart that he doesn't. The Hero is probably too complicated for what he would really use it for. Realistically, then, it's the Moment that I'm going to push him toward. He has been planning on getting the Pre, but I think it really depends on what keyboard he's going to, ultimately, want more. Will he want a full-touchscreen (Hero) or which physical keyboard he'd prefer, the Moment's (with the bigger keys) or the Pre's (tiny ass keys that annoy the piss out of you). We shall see. You know I'll be rooting for Android!

Also, you may have noticed a change in the layout of the blog. No, I didn't create this new theme. I just have gotten so sick and tired of the thin content column that I needed to change it. I do have a new design that needs to be sliced and coded, but with WordPress themes, they can be more of a hassle than they're worth. For right now, I'm content on using a solid design that others have created for me to use, royalty free.

On a final note, I will see about doing more music recommendations. Of course, I cannot stop finding new music to listen to, so I have plenty to share with everyone. I'll have to think of the format of how I want to do this. I don't know. I could just end up being far too lazy to do it, period. We'll have to see what happens.

It all started back at the end of July when I bought some CDs from CD Baby's constant CD sale involving buying 3 (or more) specially marked CDs for $5 ea. I ordered 4 CDs, including one that I've been wanting for a bit, but it was out-of-stock. I figured this was fine, I was going to save some money on that album, and they'll just ship it to me at the sale price when it comes back in stock. After a month of waiting for it to be back in stock, I looked to check on the stock. The site had it marked as "just a few left". I thought I was going to get my CD, but I wanted to check as I hadn't received an email stating I would be shipped that CD (like their site says they do on backordered items). I call today and I find out that they weren't shipping me a CD. After talking to the customer service agent, I was able to get him to reserve a copy for me and have it shipped. Turns out, it was the last one in the warehouse. Had I not done their job for them in making sure I get my product, I would have had to wait for who knows how long. Trust me, I know first-hand that it's not always the fault of the workers, but I should have been informed at some point, or so you would think.

The next episode is more recent. I was on deviantART and noticed there was a sale on a pretty cool poster. After much debate, I decided that I wanted to buy it and promptly purchased it. This was on the weekend, so I figured it wouldn't be shipped out until Monday or Tuesday (08/31 or 09/01). I get an email on Monday stating that it would be shipped out. "Great," I thought, "it should be here by the end of the week, and even the FedEx site states the same." I check in my building's office on Friday, no product. Later that night, I get on FedEx's site (silly me, trusting FedEx and deviantART with being honest with me), and the poster wasn't shipped yet. Uhh, it's the day that I was supposed to have my poster, and it wasn't even SHIPPED? I was just slightly annoyed, even moreso knowing that it was going to be a long weekend, and it would take an extra day because of Labor Day. I check back on it today, and it ended up being shipped out late Friday, and now is enroute. It's now slated for this Friday. I know, it's not a whole lot to complain about, but it's still annoying when you consider the previous story.

You would think that this would end my troubles, right? Nah, not quite yet. Fate had one more bitter twist for me. Granted, this one isn't really all that tragic, and it doesn't really have a lot to do with shipping, but it does involve more bad news. I decided to order some more CDs from Small Stone Records, Sasquatch's self-titled debut, Throttlerod's latest "Pig Charmer", and Greenleaf's "Secret Alphabets". I get an email from Scott Hamilton stating that Greenleaf's album is newly out-of-stock and won't be back for another 3-4 months. Great. I finally was able to find another worthy replacement of that CD in Dozer's "Beyond Colossal", so, as I said, it's not really that terrible. Still, it wasn't like everything was running as a well-oiled machine.

We'll see how the rest of the week goes now. Seeing as I haven't received any of my products, it still stands to reason that the FedEx truck could blow up, and the USPS could destroy my packages as they have to know by now how much I hate them. I have CDs coming from 3 different areas of the nation, so it'd be interesting to see how well they all ship in comparison to others. My backordered CD is coming from Portland, OR. 3 CDs are coming from North Carolina, and my Small Stone are coming from Detroit Rock City. With my Small Stone CDs being shipped today, I wouldn't be surprised if my NC albums come first just showing how inconsistent the USPS is. Though, by posting this, I hope my pessimism makes the USPS be ultra-efficient and I'll get everything this week like it should. In a perfect world.

Of course, the music issue may be a bit touchy. Some may try to point out that sharing music is illegal, but have no fret! Most of the music that I have uploaded thus far has been made, produced, and released by independent bands and independent labels. Not only that, but I am not hosting the music maliciously as to further along music piracy. I am hosting the music as to be an archive for myself, and it has been shown that people who DO pirate music are far more likely to actually BUY music, so, if anything, I am potentially  HELPING the bands by giving them new fans and potential buyers of their music. Also, I am fully willing to take down any music as requested by the copyright holders. I love the music that I upload, and I don't desire to step on any copyright holder's toes.

As for the software, none of it will be attached to any key generators or cracks (or links to such). Most of the software that I have uploaded is freeware that is widely available. Again, my intention isn't to further any piracy, but to host the files for my own personal use and to possibly give people access to great programs that they may not otherwise stumble upon.

Enough with all of that disclaimer stuff, though important. If anybody is interested in looking through what I have available, you can check it out at cheesesoda.info.

On a completely different note, The Soda Shop is taking a bit of a hiatus. The progress being made on the project is great, but life and another situation (that I will discuss later in this post) have forced me to put it on the back burner. It is Michigan football season, so the weekends that would normally be used to further the project will no longer be available as I will be attending (or watching) the games. Then there is the "situation" I had previously mentioned. It seems that Ron has abandoned the project with absolutely no forewarning, even with repeated attempts to just get a response from him. I have seen that he has been online since all of my attempts to contact him, so I can only believe this is a complete disregard for me and The Soda Shop. Unfortunately, I lack the skills necessary to form other partnerships and gain promoters, as well as I do not have the music industry contacts that Ron had which would have made The Soda Shop grow at an exponential rate.  Thus, I am looking for a replacement who is willing to take on the business side of the project. I have no wishes for this project to die, and any responses whether in interested parties or suggesting interested parties would be greatly welcomed. Those people can reach me at jacob.ball@thesodashop.us.

I know, it had been a long time since I have made a blog post, but this had a couple of big announcements, so hopefully that makes up for my disappearance. I do hope to continue to actually post more on this blog. I don't know how often or what type of updates will be posted, but we'll see. I've been itching to post again, but without any content, it hasn't been that easy. Anyway, I bid you ado until my next post.

The name of the radio station is, you guessed it, 'The Soda Shop'. The station was not my idea. It was mentioned by Ron, my industry contact/business partner, that I should start up my own radio station online. I thought the idea was brilliant and thus born was The Soda Shop. Of course, I couldn't just band wagon jump. It's only natural that my station be as  unique as myself. The station is going to be unique in several different ways, and in two ways specifically. The first is that it's going to focus on stoner rock and doom metal, but it will also play other great rock acts, as well. Why stoner rock and doom metal? Simple, that's the music that I love, and I feel that it's entirely underrated. The second unique aspect of The Soda Shop is that the intention is to bring attention to the lesser known stoner bands, the up-and-coming stoner and doom bands. If the genre is going to thrive, new blood needs to be exposed, and that's what we want to do.

The station's progress is rapidly picking up. We've been gaining quite a bit of band support from all around the world which is always a great motivation. We have received nearly a dozen separate albums from bands, and that number continues to grow every week. The station currently is streaming 24/7 on ustream (or, as reliably as one can expect on ustream). There's no set programming schedule yet, but along with the site coming up here in the next couple of weeks, the station should have a set programming schedule.

I am extremely excited about the site coming online. It's going to be greatly interactive. The biggest feature that should set us apart will be that bands will be able to have their own pages that they can edit themselves. Bands will be able to update their bios with current tour dates, discographies, links, and will be able to upload some sample tracks for visitors to play. Eventually, we hope that the site will also allow for fans to buy music downloads (and even physical copies?) of music from the site, which should also be available on band pages. The site will have a forum that will allow for great discussion amongst fans and bands. It'll also have sections for bands and venues to connect for gigs, for bands to look for new members, promote new albums and tours, and much more. Of course, this is only a small bit of what all will be available on the site.

I will have more information in the upcoming days and weeks, so hopefully I'll remember to keep posting updates on this blog for all to read.

LINKS TO STREAM/SITE/SOCIAL NETWORKS

MySpace | last.fm | facebook | Twitter | thesodashop.us | stream

As is the usual, most of these bands are stoner rock. I think there's only a couple of exceptions, perhaps only one. I can't help  myself, I just love the fuzz. Unlike the last journal entry about music, I'm just going to post the band names and links to their last.fm and/or MySpace. I'm too lazy to actually write out descriptions for all of them.

Countach - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Mos Generator - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Witch - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Halfway to Gone - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Barbarella - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Zeus - Stoner/Grunge Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
The Valley - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Oaks - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Backwoods Payback - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Bullets for Baby- Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Bigelf - Progressive/Psychedelic/Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Bones of Freedom - Classic Rock - MySpace
Gozu - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Hellrancho - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
3D Witch Hunt - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Steel in Mind - Classic Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Stone Axe - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Leaf Hound - Classic Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Sun Gods in Exile - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace

Enjoy.

I’m not entirely sure what I think is going to happen. What I do know is that whatever these Obamaniacs expect from the Messiah, they’re not going to get in its entirety. There’s just no possible way that Obama can deliver what people want him to achieve in two terms, let alone one term.  It’s just not going to happen, and I am glad that it won’t.

I, absolutely, hate the campaigning for community service. It’s not that I hate community service. In fact, I love the idea of it. People working together to create a better society. However, I hate it being done under the banner of a Marxist attitude. I do have a slight optimism when it comes to the community service, though. I have hopes that the attitude changes from a Socialist to a liberty-driven attitude. Perhaps people will see that it’s not the government that can make the biggest impact, but the people themselves. It could potentially fuel the drive for privatization. Yeah, it’s a long shot, but it’s one of the few things I’m actually optimistic about, so don’t ruin it for me!

I chose to wear my ‘Obamunism’ t-shirt today. It’s not so much for making a statement against Obama as it is making a statement against the whole Obamessiah worship of Obama and this inauguration day. Obama is just the 44th man to take his place at the helm of the federal government. This inauguration is no more special than the ones preceding it. Yes, this inauguration comes with the “hope” of a new era of progressive politics, but all of this progress still has yet to be seen. All we have is the word of a politician. Call me crazy, but I just can’t see any justification on believing a politician simply on his words.

Well, I needed to post a new blog, so there it is. I know it’s a bit rambly, and it jumps from subject to subject with no sense of direction. I’m tired, I’m chatting with a friend, and I didn’t really think this through prior to opening up Windows Live Writer (I’m trying this out instead of logging into WP every time just to post). I guess my parting words for this entry is that though I’m not a big fan of Obama’s politics, I do wish him luck, and as always, I want the best for my country and individual liberty. I’m willing to be proven wrong for the sake of prosperity, as long as that prosperity isn’t the result of others being screwed over. May we be able to look back in 4 years and say that America did itself some good by electing Obama.

First and foremost, I need to support the three bands that I just found out about in the last week.

Venomin James (Doom Metal)
[ Last.fm | MySpace ]
Venomin James comes out of Cleveland. They are one of two American doom metal bands that I listen to. Their debut album, Left Hand Man is brilliant, and their new album, Crowe Valley Blues, looks to be promising. That album should be out within a week, after some delays.

Graveyard (Stoner/Progressive/Psychedelic Rock)
[ Last.fm | MySpace ]
Graveyard is yet another brilliant band out of Sweden. I would classify their music as Stoner Rock, but they have a definite throw-back sound that is sure to please anybody that enjoys Classic Rock. Graveyard sounds remotely familiar to Witchcraft, another Swedish band I love. They only have one album out, Graveyard, and it's probably one of the best that I've listened to this year.

Spirits of the Dead (Stoner Rock)
[ Last.fm | MySpace ]
One of the few bands, anymore, that doesn't hail from Sweden (or America). They are Norwegian. This is definitely a band with a unique sound. Much like Graveyard, they do sound a lot like a throw-back. They're not just a cheap knockoff, though. They are the real deal. So far, their album, Spirits of the Dead, is an absolute must buy.

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Besides those three bands/albums, this is what I've been listening to as of late:

Firebird - Hot Wings / Firebird / Deluxe (Blues/Stoner Rock)
[ Last.fm | MySpace ]
This is a great band out of England. They're pretty much a supergroup. They're formed by Bill Steer (Napalm Death, Carcass) and is a far departure from grindcore and death metal from his other bands. I love the three albums that I have listened to... those listed above.

Sasquatch - II (Stoner Rock)
[ Last.fm | MySpace ]
A great stoner rock band on the Small Stone label that I love so much. Their second album is brilliant, and I've been listened to it solidly since I bought the CD.

Roadsaw - See You in Hell! (Stoner Rock)
[ Last.fm | MySpace ]
Yes, another stoner rock band from the Small Stone label. Their latest album, named above, is great. I don't really know what I can say. Stoner rock doesn't vary a whole lot, so I can't say that they're entirely unique. They do lay down some heavy riffage, and that's always appreciated by me.

Corrosion of Conformity - Wiseblood (Stoner Metal)
[ Last.fm | MySpace ]
I don't really think COC needs much introduction. Fronted by the amazing Pepper Keenan, COC is always a treat to listen to. I'm still hooked on Keenan's sophomore album (on vocals). It's not as heavy as they usually are, but that's one reason why I love this album.

Mississippi Kings - Long Time Comin' (Soft Rock)
[ Last.fm | MySpace ]
This is probably one of the softest albums you'll ever see me promote. This album caught my eye when they added me to their MySpace. If you don't mind relaxing to some nice vocals and guitar, then I highly recommend Mississippi Kings.

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There you have it, 10 albums and 8 bands that I'm currently listening to on rotate. If I didn't like them, I wouldn't recommend them.

All of the albums that are links have the full album that you can listen to for free on last.fm. Well, Wiseblood is missing one song ("Drowning in a Daydream"), but you can watch the music video for the song on youtube here.